More than 100 children in Pulaski County are looking for a “forever family” and Christians are coming forward to promote their plight and the need for more foster parents.
The CALL, or Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime, was formed in 2006 with the goal of finding more foster and adoptive parents for the 1,100 children in the foster care system handled by the Department of Human Services’ Division of Children and Family Services. Christ the King Church is one of 45 Christian churches in Little Rock and the surrounding area that has joined The CALL. Each church signs a statement of faith, an adaptation of the Apostles’ Creed.
CALL founder and executive director Mary Carol Pederson said its goal is to have “no waiting children in foster care in Pulaski County — only waiting foster and adoptive families.” To reach its goal, 197 new Christian foster families and 36 adoptive families are still needed by November 2008.
“We knew it was a God-sized goal,” Pederson said during a church summit at St. John Center in Little Rock Feb. 11.
 Want to foster or adopt? The state has the following requirements: Must be between the ages of 21 and 65 (or 55 to adopt) Must have clean driving and criminal records, appropriate housing and be financially stable. Must attend foster/adopt and CPR trainings Must have a “home study” completed |
So far, 53 CALL couples or singles are taking care of foster care children, and 34 couples or singles have adopted or in the process of adopting. Another 10 CALL families are providing respite care to foster parents during emergencies or needed breaks.
According to DHS communication director Julie Munsell, “DHS is in a state of desperation. We are more open now to accept help from the outside than ever before. … It makes sense that it would start in the faith-based community because of the Bible’s call to put others first.”
Pederson, who would like to adopt a teenager from the foster care system, said she has been impressed since the beginning with how the state and Christian churches have come together.
“It is an unprecedented collaboration between the leaders of the Division of Children and Family Services and Arkansas Christian churches … It’s a divine appointment.”
Jim Miles, a member of Christ the King Church and CALL treasurer, said the foster care and adoption ministry is following a biblical command: “Religion that God our Father considers pure and undefiled is this: to care for orphans … in their distress.”
“They are society’s throw-away children,” said Miles, who adopted two siblings through the foster care system more than three decades ago with his wife Barbara. “Foster children are today’s orphans.”
While working as a deputy welfare commissioner for the state in the 1970s, Miles said he saw the problems with the foster care system.
“That’s where the passion has come from” to promote the CALL, he said.
Lynne Delgado, a Christ the King parishioner and member of the church’s CALL committee, adopted her 7-year-old daughter, Mikaela, through the foster care system last summer. While she didn’t adopt through the CALL process, she is helping to promote the need for more families like hers.
“The sad thing is (children) linger in the foster care system longer than they should,” Delgado said.
Delgado, her husband Rick and two sons cared for five foster care children in Memphis over several years before they met Mikaela, shortly after her birth in 2000.
“When she was placed in my arms, I just fell immediately in love,” she said.
Delgado said families must think and pray about whether they are called to take in foster care children, many of whom have social, physical and psychological issues.
“We are not all cut out to be foster parents,” she said.
Miles said the CALL’s biggest achievement has been working with DCFS to create its own condensed, 30-hour foster/adopt training classes with a Christian focus.
“We know we have cut in half the time that a foster parent can be approved,” Miles said.
Through the state, the certification process for a family is six months to a year. CALL families have been approved in three months.
Miles said the CALL is not an adoption or foster placement agency. He said families still must go through the steps required by the state to become foster parents and the final decisions rest with those officials.
Once families are able to foster or adopt, they are invited to attend a CALL support group with a child psychiatrist and get help from other families with respite care or other needs.
Each member church is asked to promote CALL through its school and various ministries. At Christ the King Church, the CALL has been publicized in the bulletin. In July, 42 Christ the King families attended a meeting to get more information on the CALL. On March 8-9 the parish hosted the Arkansas Adoption Coalition’s Heart Gallery, a photography exhibit of 60 to 70 children who are available in Pulaski County for adoption through DCFS. Below each photo was a bucket with cards listing the child’s name and birthday and sometimes a sentence or two about the child.
Sandy DeCoursey, the parish’s outreach coordinator, said three Christ the King families are interested in providing respite care and two families are taking steps to foster or adopt a child.
“I know a lot of people who are praying about it,” she said. “It has to be a whole family event … (The CALL) is so aptly named. It is absolutely a calling.”
For Catholic churches in the county, DeCoursey said the CALL can be a part of their pro-life work.
“We can’t ignore this as a Christian church. We really need to walk the walk,” she said.
The lack of foster parents is a problem statewide. According to the CALL, there are only 950 foster homes in Arkansas but nearly 7,000 children who came into foster care in 2007.
Pederson said Lonoke County has already joined The Call and 30 other counties have expressed interest.
For more information, visit www.thecallinarkansas.org.
