Arkansas is in a crisis in how it cares for its children. That’s according to a study done in 2001 by the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. To date there are nearly a thousand children in Arkansas waiting to be adopted. However, new laws and procedures have made it more difficult and even impossible for some couples and individuals to adopt through the state agency Department of Human Services. There are only a few private adoption agencies in Arkansas. However the evidence is in the numbers and by them you can clearly see that there is a great need for more.
Many couples and individuals are still searching for children within the United Sates and internationally to adopt. Although there has been a reported increase in the number of women desiring to adopt in the United States, that is not the case in Arkansas. The number of children placed in permanent homes there has declined nearly 50% since 2002
In 2008, Arkansas approved a legislative measure meant to prevent gay couples from adopting or raising children. This legislation had an overwhelming impact on adoptions. Unknowingly the measure prevented unmarried cohabitating couples from adopting or fostering children. Many believed this was because of Arkansas’ strong disapproval to the candidacy of future President Barrack Obama. The Arkansas Chapter Of The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of dozens of families in a Pulaski County Circuit Court disputing the new ban.
Michelle Oglesby, Adoption Coordinator – Owner and Operator of An Angel’s Choice Adoption Agency located in Sherwood, Arkansas was placed in foster care, along with her twin brother, at 13 months before being adopted. She and her brother were adopted. This inspired her to choose a career in adoption placement.
Currently there are 4900 children waiting to find foster homes in Arkansas. “We lack homes, beds, and people willing to help,” said Dawn Scott of KTHV11 News in a KTVH11 Special: Foster Care Crisis that aired May 26th to bring awareness to this problem.
Oglesby says her mission is to fight to help pregnant women make the right choice. “We work with birth moms that are seeking to make a plan of adoption when they realize they cannot parent their child,” said Oglesby. “Instead of having a client relationship, we have a personal relationship that we get to know the birth mom, love on them, care about them, encourage them and help them through the adoption process,” she said.
Some women frown upon adoption. “Many women have the misconception that adoption means foster care,” said Oglesby.
It is much harder to find a family to foster a child than it is to adopt because of the way fostering is viewed over adoption. Some fear they will become too attached to a foster child knowing that it is only a temporary setting, while others take into consideration like what the child’s prior life was like.
Although there are several adoption agencies listed with local numbers in Arkansas, Oglesby said these agencies are physically located in Texas, Iowa, and Utah. “If there’s more local adoption agencies to help fight against abortion I think the decision of having an abortion will change,” said Oglesby. Oglesby says there is a definite need for more adoption agencies in Arkansas. She says that one way of getting information about her agency to the women facing the unplanned pregnancy is to stand in front of the Little Rock Family Planning Services Center and tell the women about the option of adoption.
Aneisha Nolen is a Career Coach/Therapist for LAUNCH in Huntsville, Alabama. Although Nolen is not in direct contact with the adoption or foster care procedures in Arkansas she does work closely in her state with organizations affiliated with the two and agrees there is a misconception between adoption and foster care and, offer an explanation of the differences between the two.
Nolan says one program she has seen become very successful in her town of Huntsville, is called RiahRose Home for Children Inc.. A program created based on a philosophy by the woman who created it was established in 2008 with the intent to ease the hardship many teenagers experience when they are left to care for the child on their own. Originally created as a program for teens, RiahRose now assist mothers beyond the teenage years. Nolan believes programs like this one could be just as successful in Arkansas.
Oglesby believes children’s waiting for adoption in the State system is prolonged because private adoption agencies are prohibited from working with the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. Oglesby said she would like to see both agencies work together in an effort to decrease the number of children without homes by finding forever families for all of them.
“If we gave that mother who has lost her child to the system because of something she did, an option to place her child up for adoption, she would at least know that there is a greater likelihood that her child is in a stable environment. She would not have to worry about her child being tossed from family to family, which is often what happens to children in foster care,” said Oglesby.
There are currently 777 foster children awaiting adoption in Arkansas. There are on an average 30-40 abortions performed at Little Rock Family Services each week.
There are few programs in Arkansas that assist children in the foster care system and fewer programs to educate women about Family Planning.
Arkansas has the largest surgical abortion clinic, located in Little Rock, where up to thirty to forty abortions can be performed in one day, and in many cases it is the only solution that many women in Arkansas feel they have. Therefore there remains a crisis where the children are concerned.
Protesters like Mary Pate says she is saddened to see the number of girls that go into the Little Rock Family Planning Services center where up to 40 abortions are performed a week.
“With news laws that were passed in the last session, there are improved informed consent laws. They are supposed to get information about the risk, they are supposed to tell them about their options, including adoption and point them to different facilities that can help them, “ said Pate.
Some women who find themselves in a situation where they are facing an unplanned pregnancy may want to choose adoption as their alternative but may not know how to go about it.
Agencies like, An Angel’s Choice Adoption Agency are there to help and assist these women through the entire adoption process. “With the current way adoptions are done the birth mother can choose who they want to be their babies adoptive parents,” said Oglesby.
“We’ve been in business since three years. And since that time we have placed 19 babies in loving homes,” said Oglesby. The main requirement needed to acquire a license to adopt is to have a Home Study performed with a Social Worker.
A valuable resource center available to pregnant women and is opened for services daily is, the Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center, located directly across the street from the abortion clinic.
Nicole Lashbrook is the Executive Director of the center and says they welcome in women who suspect that they are pregnant and offer free services for pregnancy confirmation and to inform them of their pregnancy options by doing a free pregnancy options consultation.
The resource center is a great place for women who are pregnant and wish to keep their baby because the center provides a variety of services, including information on adoption. However, with only a few private adoption agencies in now in Arkansas there is a much greater need for more.
Fewer adoption agencies exist now because many have shut their doors or have been forced to because of criminal activity. Shara Rickett said her first adoption agency experience became a nightmare due to some of these criminal acts.
“Back in 2004 my husband and I decided to start a family. We went through infertility for about four years. And then, finally decided in 2007 that we wanted to proceed through adoption,” said Shara. Ricketts said she and her husband consulted with several adoption agencies before settling on one.
“We ended up with a Christian agency we thought was great and wonderful. So in 2007 we signed on with this agency, got a home mortgage loan, and paid them a significant amount of money,” said Shara.
The Ricketts paid $24,000 to the agency. That amount of money was supposed to cover the cost of the entire adoption, according to Shara. However things didn’t quite turn out that way. The Ricketts were basically scammed by this agency, no longer in business and unreachable for comment.
Nonetheless, things did eventually turn out great for the Ricketts. They took an unconventional route and ended up with two beautiful daughters, from two separate adoptions.
Rhonda Miller’s adoption story is different than Shara’s. She, an African American woman in her forties, with no children, adopted a beautiful African American baby who’s mother was in her early teens. Although she had to do a home study, Miller said her experience was fairly easy.
“I knew the family and heard about the young lady being pregnant. So I did the Home Study and that was it. That’s all I had to do,” said Miller. Miller did not wish to reveal too much of her story because her daughter is not aware of the adoption. She is only four years old. She was adopted at birth.
These three beautiful innocent girls all got adopted by loving families. Yet, that does not put a dent in the number of children still waiting for that day to come.
Arkansas is in much need of adoption agencies, but also more programs that will inform women of their options and on how the process of adoption has differed from the way it was decades ago. Also as stated earlier, seminars in family planning would probably help more young couples and young women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy become more mindful of the consequences that could have lasting affects on the child and the birth mother.
While 777 children wait for the day to have a permanent home, law makers and legislators in Arkansas continue to battle child advocates and the concerned constituents on these important issues that are even more important to the emotional and physical health of what is the generations to come. Nevertheless, in light of what Arkansas is facing, help in not only necessary it seems imperative.