By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

How powerful can a short video be? Powerful enough to change a boy’s life – and a family’s.

In March 2015, Chrystal and Adam Baker were living a normal life in Alexander. She was an IT professional and he was a Game and Fish officer, and they were raising their blended family of four children. They had talked about adoption but had never taken any concrete steps.

Then Chrystal saw a Facebook video of a recurring television news series, “A Place to Call Home,” produced by KTHV Channel 11’s Dawn Scott. It featured 13-year-old Donté, who’d been in foster care four years. It was his birthday, and the gift he wanted was a family.

Chrystal told Adam he needed to watch it. He said he already had and told her to start the paperwork.

“I cry every time I watch it and when I think about it. … I knew he was ours,” she said.

Chrystal texted a neighbor who had adopted two teens from foster care and who suggested they contact The CALL, a Christian organization that recruits foster and adoptive parents. She “immediately” called the local chapter.

They met Donté at a Rotary Cub-sponsored picnic in Conway. He moved in that Thanksgiving week. On June 13, 2016, his adoption was finalized.

One failed adoption – but not this time

Donté had endured one adoption that failed at five months. As that point drew near, he became anxious and troublesome, testing the Bakers. A week or two before the adoption was to be finalized, he spoke very disrespectfully to Chrystal as she visited friends by their swimming pool.

“That was on a Sunday,” she said, “and Monday when Adam and I got home from work, we just sat him down and said, ‘If you’re trying to see if we’re going to give up on you, you’re wasting your time and energy, and that’s not going to happen. And you’d better not talk to me like that after we sign those papers.’”

The Bakers shared their story Nov. 30 at the Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock. They were attending the second annual event sponsored by the state Division of Children and Family Services and by Project Zero, a faith-based adoption organization.

Mischa Martin, DCFS director, said the event was created to showcase the need for adoptions. In fiscal year 2018, DCFS finalized 1,008 of them, a record. The night of Nov. 30, 363 children in the state’s care were waiting for a home – 203 for more than two years.

Attendees watched news clips produced by Scott, KAIT in Jonesboro and KNWA in Northwest Arkansas, along with Project Zero short films by filmmaker Nathan Willis.

Willis’ videos let children tell their stories and share their dreams. The videos are honest and raw. As Executive Director Christie Erwin told attendees, Project Zero wanted the children to “tell their own truths in their own way, no matter how difficult it was for us to hear.” One features a 17-year-old whose parents had been crack dealers. He’s spent 10 years in foster care. In another, Connor, 16, says he’s in foster care “because of the choices I made.” After he was jailed in 2015, his mother signed away her parental rights. Now, he just wants a second chance. Sixteen-year-old Aurora, in foster care for the second time after being in an abusive home, says she was raised to be respectful.

“I’m very loving. Sometimes I love too hard,” she said.

The goal is to have more stories like Kyler, who spent six years in foster care and would not leave Erwin’s side at Project Zero events. At one this year, Erwin saw him visiting a man wearing an Air Force jumpsuit and his wife. As she read through 350 inquiries that night, she saw they’d listed one name: his. They’d seen his short film and came there to meet him.

“About a month ago, my Kyler moved to his forever family,” she said.

As for the Bakers, Donté has found his home. There are challenging moments as with any teenager, but nothing the family can’t handle.

“These kids are just more than their case file,” Chrystal said. “I would hate to know that anyone had been keeping a case file on me for the last four years and only putting the bad stuff in there.”

You can watch some of these videos at Project Zero’s website, theprojectzero.org, and on its Facebook page.

Have tissues ready. And, like Chrystal, maybe a phone.

Related:

Their home was his place.

He has an iPhone. He wants a family.