ORANGE or WHITE?

Last weekend I attended a 5k Adoption Walk to kick off National Adoption Month. If any of you happened to be there you couldn’t miss all of the ORANGE everyone was wearing. I wasn’t certain if orange was the “official” color for adoption awareness or not so I consulted the ultimate source on answers to all of life’s serious questions . . . Wikipedia. I discovered that WHITE is actually the official color for adoption awareness.

More specifically,

WHITE is the color for those who were adopted,

PINK is the color for birth parents, and 

YELLOW is the color for adoptive parents.

Incidentally, orange is also the awareness color for leukemia, hunger, cultural diversity, humane treatment of animals, and self-injury awareness.  Who knew! 

I had to scratch my head and wonder “Why Orange?” Is it because orange fits in with the fall colors of November or because topaz is the traditional birthstone for November? Or is it simply because as nice a color as white is orange is just much more bright and noticeable?

I found the answer in this blog written by the woman who is responsible for starting the Annual 5K Adoption Walk. To quote Alison Lowe:

“Orange is cheery, uplifting and boisterous. It is also made from mixing two primary colors together...red and yellow. Hmmm . . . kind of like adoption!

Why orange? Well that is easy! "Orange' you glad for adoption"! I know I am. Orange is a strong, bright colour which helps me keep a light alive for adoption.”

If anyone asks my humble opinion on which color I will be using to celebrate National Adoption Month- orange or white- the answer is quite simple: BOTH.