By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

It’s Dec. 10, and a gray-haired man in a red hat and a suit – a business one – is helping deliver gifts at the State Capitol.

That would be Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who briefly donned a Santa hat at the annual Christmas at the Capitol event, where legislators, lobbyists and others connected to state government bring gifts for foster kids around the state.

The event, created five years ago by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, brought several foster kids who are eligible for adoption to the Capitol. One little girl excitedly declared it the “best Christmas ever.”

Also present was Mischa Martin, director of the Division of Children and Family Services, the agency in charge of foster children.

Earlier this year, the division released a report, “Family First Fits Us.” It details some of its successes since 2016, when the system was beset with too many kids served by not enough caseworkers. Its report that year was titled “Moving Beyond Crisis,” which is what it has done.

– The number of foster children has fallen from 5,196 in late 2016 to 4,270 the day of the Christmas party.

– The percentage of children placed in family-like settings, which research has shown is better for them than group homes, has increased from 77.6% to 86.9%. That’s thanks to the work of Martin’s division and organizations like The CALL, a Christian-based group that recruits and trains foster and adoptive parents.

– The caseload per family service worker has dropped from 28 to 19. Over the past two-and-a-half years, the agency has been budgeted 187 new positions.

The foster care system may be the hardest role state government plays. Martin’s agency must decide when to separate children from their families due to abuse, neglect and/or parental drug use. Then it must find a safe place for those kids to stay. Then it must try to rehabilitate the parents. Then it must decide if and when the biological home is safe for the children to return. Then it must monitor that home and, if necessary, remove the kids again and find an adoptive home.

For Martin, it can be a consuming job, but she said she is as passionate today as she was when she became Division of Children and Family Services director four years ago after serving as a DCFS attorney seven years previously.

“Every kid still matters to me,” she said. “Every, every kid. I just, the thing is I feel called to do this work, and that calling is really strong, and if that ever goes away, it’s time for me to move on.”

My interview with Martin was more like a conversation, because I’m not objective about this subject. About this time last year, we had three beautiful sisters under three years old in our home for about 10 days on two different occasions. On Dec. 20, we gathered around the Christmas tree with them and opened gifts. We ended up raising two of them in our home for three months from March until June. The baby was the sweetest little thing, but when she was hungry, she would let the world know.

Eventually they were returned to their biological parents – who were not prepared to take them back. The children have since been removed again and separated into two other foster homes. We think about them and pray for them a lot.

They and the state’s 4,300 other foster children are dependent on Martin’s agency. While it has moved beyond crisis, it’s not a perfect system. Kids get bounced around and sometimes age out of foster care without a stable family. For them, the road ahead is often hard.

But when the system works, a child gets a permanent home and a forever family – a new one or their old one, once it’s able to fulfill its responsibilities and purpose. They get a bed they can call their own. They get brothers and sisters. They can stay in the same school and keep their same friends. They get a much better start on their future.

I hope this happens soon for those three little girls who gathered around our tree last year. I hope it happens for the little girl getting gifts at the Capitol Dec. 10.

In fact, I wish it would happen for all of them this week. For them, it really would be the best Christmas ever.

Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.