I recently met a guy named Jason Saunders who spent most of his childhood in the LA County foster care system. His story really brought home to me the urgency of finding permanent homes for the 500 children in Los Angeles County and the 104,000 children nationwide in the system who are eligible for adoption.

Data doesn't have to lie to ignore the truth. In the case of the annual adoption and foster care report issued by the federal government, ignoring the full truth is unfair to foster youth.

Most days Odalyz, Zamantha and Angel are not together. They are in separate foster homes. They need to be adopted. They need a family to live with and be a part of. Forever. That's all they need.

The most important element of the foster care system is getting kids out of foster care and into a permanent placement so they don't have to spend their entire childhoods in courtrooms, wondering if they will ever have a place to call home.

This Adoption Day, 120 foster kids were officially accepted into their new families in Los Angeles. Across the country more than 4,000 adoptions were finalized.

Child welfare makes sure children are housed, clothed, and fed. It makes sure they go to school. It tries to address their medical needs if they have any. This is great and it's a good thing we have it. But a system isn't a parent. Even the system knows this.

There are thousands of children in this country who have survived the abuse and neglect of their parents. Each is as precious as Caylee Anthony was. And each of these children's lives is still at risk. The outcomes for their adulthood, if they remain in the child welfare system, are bleak.

Adoptions from foster care in the U.S. are at a record high and the average wait time has shrunk by a year. So it's time to double-down with this momentum.

Michael is 8-years-old and has lived in 7 different foster homes. How is that even possible? It shouldn't be.

So many children are out there in our country, basically on their own, waiting for the right family to take them in and make them feel that they are as much a part of that family as anyone else.

Because of state budget cuts, many Court Appointed Special Advocate programs across the country have lost state funding. They need all the help they can get from volunteers and donors.