Signal Mountain Bible Church is hosting Give Love 2016, a fostering and adoption conference, Sunday, March 20 from 1-6 p.m.
The purpose of the event is to bring together national and international foster care and adoption agencies to answer common questions people have when considering fostering or adopting a child, said teaching pastor Louis Belva.
“We want to provide an outlet for people considering fostering or adoption to take that next step,” he said.
The idea for the conference sprang from Belva’s experience fostering a child with his wife Kasey.
About two years ago, she was reading her Bible and came across James 1:27, which reads, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world [New International Version],” and felt she was being led to foster a child. Through a process, the two came to agree that they should foster, he said.
After completing a nine-week class through the Department of Children’s Services, the Belvas had an 8-day-old girl placed in their home. They adopted her Dec. 23 of last year.
After the adoption, they often encountered people who told them they had considered fostering or adoption themselves, and the Belvas realized that everyone had similar questions.
“We began to see a need [for the conference],” Louis Belva said. “We’re really burdened to help care for children who need a home and to get good families involved to provide that.”
He said one of his own objections to fostering was a concern that he would become too attached to the child. But he had a change of heart after reading an article that said children in foster care actually need parents who will become “too attached.”
“These kids deserve loving homes who will care for them and become attached,” he said. “What struck me when I held my daughter for the first time was that what was at stake in her life was her destiny, and I was there to love her and give her a nurturing environment.”
When a child is placed in foster care, the biological parents are given resources through the state to overcome their obstacles, such as counseling or job training, and if they are successful they have the opportunity to get the child back.
In the Belvas’ situation, the parents didn’t do anything.
“Ultimately, I think the best thing for a child is for their biological parents to care for them, but if that doesn’t happen, someone needs to step in and bridge that gap,” he said.
Belva said the conference is the result of a collaboration between several churches interested in improving the lives of children who need temporary or permanent placement. It will feature eight speakers on a variety of topics, and multiple agencies will be on-hand to answer questions.
“We’re wanting to raise awareness of the options out there, and we’re purposefully trying to be broad in our approach,” said Belva, adding that the two things that tend to hold people back from adopting or fostering is fear – resulting from a lack of knowledge – and a lack of resources. “We’re putting the resources and knowledge together so people have all the information necessary to know if this is something they want to get involved with.”
Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com