Putting Faith in Foster Care - an article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch

Putting faith in foster care
BY NANCY CAMBRIA
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Saturday, Jun. 06 2009

Finding permanent homes for Missouri's foster children might come down to a matter of faith — in numbers.

That's the theory behind a coalition of 45 St. Louis area Christian churches that have pledged to help find foster and adoptive families in their congregations. Emily Nienhuis, lead organizer for the effort, called Fostering Faithful Families, said it could change the lives of hundreds of foster kids. "There are about 8,000 churches in Missouri, and so why are there still 1,400 kids waiting for adoption in Missouri if there's all these churches?" said Nienhuis, who is also director of the One Heart Family Ministries, a Christian group that promotes adoption of foster kids. "It should be preached in those churches that we are there to look out for the orphans who so need our help. "

The new group will sponsor its first recruiting event today at Calvary Church in St. Peters. It will partner with the Missouri Department of Social Services' Children's Division and a Colorado-based Christian advocacy group, Focus on the Family. The free event will encourage Christians to adopt older foster children and involve their churches in the foster care system. Participants today will see a photo gallery of adolescent foster children, meet representatives from children's agencies and hear speakers on adopting foster kids. Prospective parents can even begin the initial adoption process.

Fostering Faithful Families is based on the idea that church congregations can support foster and adoptive parents, providing everything from prayer circles and hand-me downs to baby sitting. New foster parents can often feel overwhelmed by the demands of a new child and an avalanche of court appointments and state regulations.

"Unfortunately, most foster parents have one placement and then quit," Nienhuis said. Faith-based involvement in foster care is not new in Missouri or the nation.

In 2004, Missouri lawmakers passed legislation requiring the Children's Division to seek out partnerships with religious groups. The law came in the wake of former President George W. Bush's push to fund faith-based partnerships for social welfare programs. The law prompted the creation of Missouri Compassion, which connects churches with the Children's Division to help foster children by, for example, providing clothes and food.

But Fostering Faithful Families, which takes no state or federal money, is the first faith-based movement in Missouri trying to create new foster and adoptive families. It is also one of the more organized faith-based alliances in the country, said Kelly Rosati of Focus on the Family. Amy Martin, adoption program manager with the Children's Division, said the faith-based nature of the program is not an issue. Foster parents are not restricted from bringing kids into their faiths unless a child or a biological parent forbids it. Nienhuis said foster parents find that children in state custody have rarely been raised in an organized religious community. The arrangement also passes muster with critics of faith-based government initiatives. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, for example, says it doesn't have a problem as long as the program is not subsidized by government dollars and does not favor one religion. But groups trying to reform the foster care system still have doubts.

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform believes churches can better serve children by helping their biological families so the kids can return to them. Fostering Faithful Families started its work in March, training its first round of "ambassadors." They will head ministries supporting foster families in specific churches. They include Erika Van Order, a member of Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, who has adopted one foster child, now 4, whom she took in as an infant. She is a foster mother to two other children. Van Order said foster care can be "a roller coaster of emotions" as she deals with child advocates, the family court, the Children's Division and, in her case, the natural parents of some of her foster kids. "You tend to live court date to court date, not knowing if your kid is going back," she said. "Sometimes you agree with the court and sometimes you don't." Van Order said that a week after she first became a foster parent, her church held a surprise baby shower. Parishioners have also offered bags of hand-me-downs and other help. But most important, when a court date arrives, she said, she gets something even greater: a community praying for her and the kids.