Walking the walk for 'orphans'

Home-baker Carol Spenst makes decorated cookies for special events, including these for one of her favorite causes, Walk for the Waiting on April 30 in Little Rock.
Home-baker Carol Spenst makes decorated cookies for special events, including these for one of her favorite causes, Walk for the Waiting on April 30 in Little Rock.

For Carol Spenst, the fourth annual Walk for the Waiting, April 30 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, will be another chance to walk a mile for a smile.

The walk is to raise money for three agencies that promote adoption of children through the state's foster care system. Project Zero, Immerse Arkansas and The Call came together to start the walk. Their goal the first year was $80,000. That was the hope. But 800 sponsored walkers representing 70 churches raised $250,000.

"They're all faith-based, all working very much in conjunction with the state," Spenst says of the organizers. By triple-teaming, they have united for "the same goal -- we all want kids to find families."

Spenst is among the volunteers behind this year's walk. She serves on Immerse Arkansas' nine-member board, and helped plan the first outing.

"Right out of the gate, it was very successful," she says, and thanks the Lord for aligning the reasons behind the walk's steady turn-out.

Now in its fourth year, the walk's goal is again $250,000.

"There is a large movement, especially in churches, of serving the orphan population," she says. "Orphan" is a word that might seem better suited to the poor streets of Charles Dickens' time. "Wards of the state" is today's softer terminology. "But that really is what they are," she says, "orphans."

Hearing that Arkansas has thousands of orphans, many people want to do something to help, she says. But adoption can be expensive, and foster parenthood "is not for everybody."

"The walk is a great vehicle to get involved," Spenst says, "and to support the organizations that are involved in this."

She and her husband, John, adopted infant twins -- a boy and a girl born in Little Rock. Along with their two biological daughters, they have "four darling kiddos": twins Violet and William, now 3; Bella, 5; and Lily, 7.

For her, the walk is in addition to motherhood, business and cookie-baking. The Spensts own the two Chick-fil-A restaurants in and across from Park Plaza mall in Little Rock. Also a home business owner, she bakes and decorates cookies as the sugar chef of Wildflowers Bake Shoppe.

"I give the profits from my cookie business to families [who] are adopting," to help with the cost of adoption, she says. "It's fun to give money from something that's fun for me."

And close to 1,000 readers follow her blog, The John and Carol Show, at johnandcarolshow.blogspot.com.

The John and Carol Show swings from her thoughts on family and recipes to craft projects and adoption. Among posts that tell the experience are those headed "Waiting With a Heavy Heart," "On Remaining Optimistic" and "A Different Kind of Labor."

The couple met as students at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, where her social work studies called for an internship in a group home. Although moved by the children's plight, she loved travel too much to consider the responsibility of adoption.

"But God changed my heart," she says.

During the year that she and her husband spent filing and waiting on adoption paperwork, she says, "I wondered if there was an organization locally that I could partner with."

Finding not just one, but plenty of ways to help herself and others through the adoption process, the job has kept her on her feet.

"Our adoption story has truly been written by the Lord," as she describes the experience on her blog site. "We stand absolutely amazed at what God has done in our family."

But nearly 5,000 children remain in Arkansas' foster care system, according to the walk's sponsors. About 1,200 need foster families. And "right now, 580 children are available for immediate adoption, just waiting for a family," Spenst says.

By the end of this year, more than 200 will "age out" of state care, meaning they will have grown to adult age without ever having found a family.

"We help provide support and life training for those who age out," Spenst says. "That's it, the government is done with you, and you're expected to find your way. And most of them can't."

A "safe place" shelter for orphans out of state care is among the long-term goals of Walk for the Waiting, she says. Another is to provide a support center for foster families.

Children come to foster care out of abusive homes, psychologically damaged, "and a lot of parents aren't necessarily equipped to handle those behaviors," Spenst says.

Safe surroundings, play therapy, counseling, a sense of home for every child -- "those are our dreams," she says, "and the walk is a way to make those possibilities real."

Walk for the Waiting starts with registration at 8:15 a.m. April 30 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, followed by the one-mile walk, awards ceremony and celebration. More information is available at walkforthewaiting.org, or by calling (877) 427-9389.

More information about The Call is at thecallinarkansas.org, Immerse Arkansas at immersearkansas.org, and Project Zero at theprojectzero.org.

High Profile on 04/17/2016

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