National Adoption Day 2015: 10 Quotes To Celebrate Uniting Children In Foster Care With Loving Families

The Saturday before Thanksgiving every year, families across the U.S. adopting children have something else to give thanks for. That day is National Adoption Day, the day to celebrate policymakers, judges and adoption professionals who work to help finalize adoptions.

The day is also meant to raise awareness of the more than 100,000 children in foster care waiting for adoption, according to the National Adoption Day website. The observance, which has been held every year since 2000, was started by a coalition of charities, including the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and the Children's Action Network.

The average wait for a foster child to be adopted is almost four years, and more than 23,000 foster children age out of the foster system every year without a home, according to the National Adoption Day website. Some 4,500 children were adopted during last year's National Adoption Day across the 400 cities that participated in the day.

Read a few of the best quotes about adoption, and how families come together, compiled from Brainy Quote, Quotations Page, AZ Quotes, Wise Old Sayings and the National Adoption Day Coalition:

"Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother." — Oprah Winfrey

"I think adoption is a blessing all around when it's done right." — Hugh Jackman

"My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college." — Steve Jobs

"Somehow destiny comes into play. These children end up with you and you end up with them. It's something quite magical." -- Nicole Kidman

"Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life." — Jodi Picoult

"However motherhood comes to you, it's a miracle." — Valerie Harper

"Every child deserves a home and love. Period." — Dave Thomas

"He who can reach a child's heart can reach the world's heart." — Rudyard Kipling

"Little souls find their way to you, whether they're from your womb or someone else's." — Sheryl Crow

"The day an adoption is finalized is one families never forget." — The National Adoption Day Coalition