As Upstate Baptist churches find traction for a developing ministry to support statewide foster care and adoption, Judy Caldwell, program manager for adoption with the South Carolina Department of Social Services, hopes to educate the faith community about the realities of adoptive parenthood.
Through Adopt NOW, represented by a handful of Upstate churches, organizers hope to connect South Carolina Baptist churches with government social service providers in order to place more children in foster or adoptive homes.Greg Edens, an Easley family physician and member of East Pickens Baptist Church, joined Caldwell in a presentation for Adopt NOW (No One Waiting) at November’s annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Edens and Caldwell, a member at Bethesda United Methodist Church, Powdersville, are both adoptive parents.
“In 2009 my wife and I were attending a Hope for Orphans conference when we learned about Project 1.27 in Colorado,” Edens said. “Project 1.27 is helping connect government child service agencies with the faith community for permanency within Colorado’s foster care system. Churches can get involved as adoptive families, as support teams for adoptive families, and as family sponsors.”
Project 1.27 derives its name from James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans – in their distress.” The group’s website can be accessed at http://project127.com.
Edens approached his local DSS director with ideas about how East Pickens could help children in foster care, specifically with projects like helping with school supplies and tutoring. The Edenses and other church members also formed an Orphan [Ministry] Team within the church. The team discovered that 15 children in Pickens County were ready to be adopted.
“We asked ourselves, why don’t we as a church – and among other churches – try to find 15 families?” Edens said. “First Baptist Church of Simpsonville is actually a pioneer in this work in South Carolina. Adopt NOW came together in South Carolina between our churches, using Project 1.27 as a model.”
Joining the two churches were Mon-Aetna Baptist Church, Union; Edwards Road Baptist Church, Greenville; and Marathon Church, Powdersville.
“We are working to find a catalyst church in every South Carolina county,” Edens said. “We’ll be working to develop that in 2011. We also want to identify a time of year or a Sunday to raise awareness. Ideally, a pastor would share a vision and someone from DSS would be on hand to connect with interested families. We’re laying the foundation for a statewide effort.”
Another mission for Adopt NOW (online at http://www.adoptnowsc.org) will be continuing to educate the public about the adoption environment in South Carolina. Caldwell said she was approached by interested families immediately after speaking to South Carolina Baptists at November’s annual meeting. Each family came because they were unable to conceive and wanted an infant.
“We must stress that we are talking about children who are school age and older and are victims of abuse and neglect,” she said. “Many of those who contact DSS get frustrated because they want the baby experience, and we can’t help them. We just aren’t being sought by young ladies having unplanned pregnancies. Those young ladies are using the private sector. A couple wanting to adopt newborns or younger children will need to approach local attorneys or physicians.”
Many couples, she said, dive into adoption for emotional reasons rather than realistic ones.
“Our available children have been in foster care for at least six months,” she said. “We work from six months to two years, trying to help children get back to natural parents.”
Abuse and neglect, she said, always involves an emotional crisis – even if it’s just the “unknowing” of whether or not a child will have his or her needs met. Abuse can include both physical and sexual. “We have children living in cycles of uncertainty, and they aren’t learning to give or receive love,” Caldwell said.
She also hopes prospective families will consider that:
– Foster or adoptive parents will never replace biological parents, and children deserve to keep their memories, good or bad.
– Unconditional acceptance is required, knowing children will come with different sets of values. Foster and adoptive families, as well as children, can expect to make changes.
– While DSS works to make families completely aware of behavioral issues, there may be some behaviors that have not yet come forward.
– It’s a lifetime commitment, and families need to commit and work through issues. Parenting is a hard job and not something to be taken lightly.
Caldwell said up to 60 percent of foster parents move forward and adopt a child assigned to them.
“Families should be willing to be foster families as well as adoptive,” she said. “We especially need families who are looking for sibling groups and older children. State services and assistance are available, and an organization like Adopt NOW can bring churches alongside for an even deeper level of family support. [This] is a wonderful opportunity for our communities and churches to [connect with] foster-care and adoptive families, and I am hopeful for what it can do through the great and the tough times.”
Kris Barnett, associate dean of the Clamp Graduate School of Christian Ministry at Anderson University, was pastor at East Pickens when Adopt NOW began. “We firmly believe God can utilize Southern Baptists in South Carolina to answer the call of those in need of ‘forever’ families,” said Barnett, an adoptive parent. “We look forward to the day when DSS layoffs are the result of reduced children in the system rather than reduced cash in the coffers.” – SCBC