By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
Christie Erwin did not know when she sat down in a rocking chair in January 1993 that her life was about to change, and that she would help reduce the number of foster children in Arkansas waiting to be adopted from 700 to 200.
But she has, and that’s why she’s this columnist’s Arkansan of the year for 2024.
Erwin is the founder and executive director of Project Zero (www.theprojectzero.org). This year alone, that organization had helped connect 125 foster children with adoptive families as of November. Foster children are those the state removes from their homes because of neglect, abuse and/or unsafe conditions.
Project Zero, which she started in 2011, does this through an online Heart Gallery featuring photos and powerful videos that tell the kids’ stories, and through events like the Candyland Christmas December 7.
The latter brought 143 waiting kids and 48 prospective families to Little Rock’s Fellowship Bible Church for food, fun, gifts from 250 people, and, most importantly, a chance to connect. Last year’s event resulted in 17 adoptions.
Since Erwin started her journey, the number of waiting children has fallen from 700 to 200 thanks to her work and the work of many others, including caseworkers at the Division of Children and Family Services.
Her part began in 1993, when she was a regular church-going mom, sitting in a chair and rocking her one-year-old daughter, when she started thinking about children who didn’t have loving homes.
Erwin felt God was calling her to do something. She and husband Jeff became foster parents for a non-profit adoption agency and then later fostered for the Division of Children and Family Services.
They would foster more than 50 children over 19 years and adopt two children to go along with their four biological ones. In 2009, she published a book, “The Middle Mom – How to Grow Your Heart by Giving it Away.”
Giving away her heart has led to much joy. Asked to describe some of those moments this year, she recalled a discouraged 16-year-old at Project Zero’s February Fun Day who said no one would want to adopt someone his age. He met a family, and by Christmas his adoption was finalized. A medically fragile and severely developmentally disabled young man, Jose, had been the state’s longest waiting child at 16 years when a couple adopted him as his guardians. He remains in a facility because of his challenges, but his mom works five minutes away, and they see him often.
“He’s no longer on the Heart Gallery, so the longest waiting child is no longer waiting,” Erwin said. “And that to me is just beyond thrilling.”
Erwin shared more of those moments on her Facebook page. On December 12, she said that Caitlin was adopted after 2,649 days in foster care. That’s more than seven years. Savannah also was adopted that day. The next day, Bella was home after 2,851 days, while four siblings had been adopted by the same family. Three days later, three more siblings were adopted.
But giving your heart away also brings anguish. A low point this year came when a teen in foster care died of a drug overdose. Erwin stood at her open casket, her mind spinning. Then there’s Will, who aged out of foster care and struggles with homelessness and drug addiction. Erwin is a part of his life and posts about him occasionally.
How does a heart cope with all the ups and downs? “Prayer is one of the big ways, and just knowing what God has called me to do, beyond a shadow of a doubt,” she said.
Her husband also keeps her grounded, and she has six children and seven grandchildren. Many support her. People tell her they are praying for Will.
“There are so many people, so many incredible people who are lifting up our arms,” she said.
Erwin is 64 and has no plans to retire. Referencing Ephesians 3:20, she says her calling “has changed; it has morphed; it has deepened. It has been, like my favorite scripture, exceeding abundantly above all that I could have asked or imagined, in every way – in grief, in loss, in joy, in sheer excitement.”
It all started 32 years ago in a rocking chair when a regular church-going mom gave away her heart and traded a life of normalcy for one of joy and anguish. That decision, her follow-through, and all the people working with her have helped bring together hundreds of children and their forever families.
A columnist’s admiration doesn’t compare to all of that exceeding abundance, but she has that, too. Christie Erwin is the Arkansan of the year.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 17 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.