Chapel discusses importance of foster care

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Last week, students at Oklahoma Christian University learned that they do not need to adopt a child to follow God’s call to be a “father to the fatherless.”

“A father to the fatherless” was Oklahoma Christian’s theme for chapel, and the week kicked off with executive director of Lilyfield Christian Adoption and Childcare, Holly Towers, informing students of the importance of this theme.

“This subject is important to anyone who loves God,” Towers said. “Throughout scripture, God self-identifies himself as a ‘father to the fatherless.’ If that is who God is and we the church are his body, then we must take action when it comes to children without families.”

Sophomore Ty Belt said he was glad to have the opportunity to learn more about adoption and foster care.

“I think that it’s important that we are educated on that because that’s one of those things that if you didn’t know about it, you could just kind of let it go,” Belt said.

Lilyfield is a nonprofit organization located in Edmond, Okla. that seeks to provide adoption and foster care services for women dealing with unplanned pregnancies.

Towers, a 2002 alumna of Oklahoma Christian, came to Lilyfield in 2008.

“At Lilyfield, we believe that every child deserves a family,” Towers said. “Everything we do is pointed to that goal.”

Baby bottles were seen around campus all week to collect donations from students to help fund foster care and adoptions through Lilyfield.

“We use the funds to recruit, train and certify families according to Oklahoma law,” Towers said. “The process to become an adoptive or foster parent is lengthy and governed by many laws and regulations. We need to ensure that families are not only legally able to foster or adopt, but that they are also emotionally and spiritually prepared for the journey.”

Junior Madison Huntsman is familiar with the foster care system at Lilyfield because her parents have taken on foster children since she was 16.

“I think it’s really cool that [Lilyfield] was on campus,” Huntsman said. “I think that now a lot more people know about it, and it was great to hear the different stories. It probably helped raise a lot of money.”

Most college students will not decide to be a foster parent during school.

However, there are other ways to help the foster system.

“You can always donate money even though that is hard for college students sometimes,” Huntsman said. “You could also volunteer at different shelters and just hang out with the kids. I think that makes a huge difference.”

Huntsman explained what aspect of the foster system her parents have been a part of.

“There’s different kinds of foster families,” Huntsman said. “There’s emergency foster care or more permanent situations, which is what my parents are. My parents take care of the kids while their parents aren’t able to.”

The Huntsman family varies in amount of time they have one foster child.

“The longest we’ve had a kid was about a year and a half, but we’ve also had one for like less than a week,” Huntsman said. “So you just never know what the time frame will be. My parents currently have two foster babies right now.”

Huntsman has enjoyed watching her parents take on this responsibility over the past five years.

“My parents have had a lot of different babies,” Huntsman said. “It’s a really cool thing that they do that, and I think we’ve had really good experiences. It can also be really sad when they leave, but for the most part it has really blessed us all.”

Huntsman had nothing but positive experiences dealing with the foster care system in her family.

However, she did admit that she believes there is room for improvement.

“I don’t think that they should always be wanting to reunite the kids with their parents, because that’s not always what’s best for the kids,” Huntsman said.

Belt recognized the emotional attachments that can be formed during foster care  can make it a hard process to handle.

“Getting families attached to the foster child could be hard,” Belt said. “Going in and out of different families all the time would probably get annoying for a child and probably hurt their self-esteem a little.”

Towers admits that the foster care system is complex.

“Our governmental child welfare system probably does about the best it can,” Towers said. “The bottom line is governments and systems don’t raise children; families raise children. That being said, the church cannot disengage or ‘write off’ the government system. The modern-day, American orphan is part of this system. So in order to have access to these children, we are going to have to do that through the child welfare system.”

Huntsman sees the foster care program being a part of her life for a long time.

“I think I could see myself being a foster parent,” Huntsman said. “I would probably do it either before I have kids or when my kids are older.”

Huntsman said she is thankful for the impact that being involved with the foster care system has had on her life.

“It’s really taught me that families don’t have to be perfect,” Huntsman said. “God really works in making a family for everyone according to what they need.”

The baby bottle fundraiser collected over $2,000 during the week they were displayed.