Aaron grabs you by the hand to show you his world.

He leads you to his room, where race cars make laps around his room. Each night, he snuggles under the hood of a blue race car comforter. Near his head on the wall are about a half-dozen snapshots.

The pictures are of him with different members of the Miller family. The Millers are his foster family in Bismarck. Friday, Sherie and Dean Miller will go before a judge to adopt Aaron. The adoption formalizes what happened over the three years the Millers have had Aaron in their home. They became a family.

"We didn't go into foster care thinking we would adopt," Sherie Miller said. But, for the Millers, it seemed like the right decision when Aaron was able to be adopted.

Following the adoption Friday is a celebration put on by Adults Adopting Special Children, known as AASK, and other organizations to recognize National Adoption Day. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness about foster care and adoption. The other organizations involved are West Central Human Service Center, Burleigh County Social Services, Catholic Charities/PATH-North Dakota, the Village Family Service Center and South Central Judicial District.

Not all foster placements end in adoption, but in North Dakota, 85 percent of foster care placements do. The Millers did not intend to adopt when they started foster care five years ago. "If he was adopted by another family, it would be a loss," Sherie Miller said.

The Millers will help Aaron keep in touch with his birth father, who is the only family member who has contact with Aaron. That way, Aaron can decide what he wants to do with that relationship when he is older, Dean Miller said.

When they started foster care, the Millers' children ranged from 4 to 18. Their son, Justin, is now 23, Heidi is 20, Derek is 14 and Katee is 9.

Whenever a child came into the house, they each brought into their home came from a unique set of circumstances. Sometimes it meant the child preferred Dean or Sherie, and then the child didn't always get along with the Millers' children. But, the Miller children chalk it up to jealousy that can arise among any siblings.

"The way my parents did it, it was never like he's my foster brother, but my brother," Heidi Sanders said. "If there was any jealousy or fighting, it was normal for siblings, not over the top."

Aaron came to the Millers with a language disability. He does not speak. He is diagnosed with a type of apraxia where he cannot make the movements or the sounds to talk. He can get frustrated when he wants to talk, Dean Miller said. He can answer yes/no-type questions with an "uh-huh" or an "un-uh" and point at objects as he tries to form a sentence.

"He has done a lot better," Dean Miller said. In the future, the Millers hope Aaron improves his language. He goes to a speech therapist for help.

A child is placed with a family based on likely compatibility. Then, the child spends some time together with the foster family before it is a permanent arrangement. A child can be moved from a foster home if it doesn't work out, the child has other needs or a judge decides to change the placement.

Aaron came to their home with his brother, who is now in a different foster home. His parents' rights were terminated, and the Millers could adopt him or continue fostering him until someone else adopted him. The Millers started the adoption process a year ago.

"They know you inside and out … If you are a private person, it can be intrusive," Sherie Miller said.

Sherie and Dean Miller had psychological evaluations, a home study and fingerprinting. It was a more intense version of what they went through when they became a foster family. They became foster parents after a friend encouraged them.

When Katee and Derek tell people about their family adopting Aaron, the reaction is usually positive. One of Katee's friends was excited that they'd still have someone to play school with, and Derek heard about one of his teacher's experiences with adoption.