When Chrystal Baker and her husband, Adam, saw Donte, who is now their son, featured on Dawn Scott’s A Place to Call Home on KTHV in March 2015, they knew he was meant to be part of their home.
“When he was talking to Dawn about his birthday and how he just wanted a family, including brothers and sisters and a dog, we saw that, and we decided we wanted to open our home for adoption,” Chrystal said. “We were moved by his story, mainly because he didn’t ask for the latest and greatest technology and things, but instead wanted a family.”
Chrystal said she and her husband immediately started the process of qualifying to adopt a child, and their home was opened for adoption six months later, after they had gone through the training and paperwork.
“I had no idea what it took to adopt a child,” Chrystal said. “I was so naive about foster care. I just thought I would call [the Department of Human Services] and pick [Donte] up in a couple of weeks, but obviously, it is more complicated than that.”
She said there was a neighbor who lived by them at the time who had recently adopted two teenagers, and she introduced the Bakers to The CALL. According to its website, “The CALL in Saline and Perry counties partners with the Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services and local churches to recruit foster and adoptive families and support the families and children.” For more information, visit thecallinarkansas.org.
“We started the process through The CALL to become an adoptive family,” Chrystal said. “We were dead set on Donte. We had seen his story, and we felt like he was our kid. We were totally set that he was ours.”
She said that by the end of the training sessions, county coordinator Julia DesCarpentrie told the Bakers that the odds of Donte still being available were slim.
“I was pretty heartbroken when she told me that,” Chrystal said. “We knew about statistics for teenagers who age out of care with no home, so we still wanted to adopt, even if it wasn’t him.
“When our home was open [for adoption], that is when we learned that Donte was still available. We met him at the Rotary Club Picnic, and when I met him, I knew he was our kid.”
Nearly four years later, in July, the Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of Children and Family Services named the Bakers as Foster Parents of the Year for Area 3. The award is “based on several criteria, including reunification efforts with biological families, partnership with the agency, support for other foster parents and advocacy for children in their care,” according to a press release from DHS.
“The Bakers are a great family,” DesCarpentrie said. “They came to The CALL interested in adoption, and they opened their homes to foster children and adoption.
“And after adopting their son, they also became volunteers, volunteering with us for several years as well. They teach various classes for families who are interested in adopting and fostering, and through the process, [the Bakers] have also become good friends of mine.”
“We really felt like we were undeserving [of the title],” Chrystal said. “There were two other families that we knew from our county who were nominated as well, and they had a lot more kids than us. … We were absolutely honored. It is a huge privilege, but there are foster parents in this county and this state, too, who do a lot more for kids in the foster and adoptive community.”
DesCarpentrie said the Bakers have opened their home and hearts to teenagers.
“Teens are more difficult to find homes for, but for some reason, the Bakers just really connect with our teenagers,” DesCarpentrie said. “They fill a huge need for children who are older and need a home.
“One thing I really appreciate about the Bakers is they want to be a home for children to heal, not just a place to sleep. They want to see them grow and be stronger and learn necessary life skills. They make sure the children have the services they need to be healthy and whole.”
Donte was part of a large sibling group, the second oldest of seven. He was in and out of foster care, beginning at 2 years old, and was permanently taken from his family at the age of 9.
“When he was taken the last time, he knew that he was never going back,” Chrystal said. “He was neglected as a child, but he is a great kid. He doesn’t have a lot of lingering trauma.
“He has issues with not taking responsibility for his actions, and he has a tendency to tell tall tales, but overall, he is a great kid.”
The Bakers have been married for eight years and live in Alexander. They have a blended family, including five children and two grandkids. Their oldest, Tre, 22, is married and has two kids; Brady is 20; Donte is 17; Addison is 12; and son Brantlee, 7, is the youngest. Chrystal said the family currently has a foster placement, too, a 12-year-old girl, just 10 days older than Addison. Donte is their only adopted child.
“We’ve had kids ask us, ‘Will y’all adopt us?’ and we always tell them, ‘This is your home until you either go back to your home or you find your forever family,’” Adam Baker said.
“We don’t foster to adopt. We know if they leave our house, they are going to a good place,” he said.
“We are going to love you while you are here,” Chrystal said she tells the children. “We aren’t trying to be their mom and dad, but we are fine with being aunt and uncle forever.
“We try to establish that with the kids early, and we do all we can to help their parents. If the kids see you are really partnering with their parents and trying to help them, I think it alleviates [the children’s] stress of being in foster care.”
Jan Parks and her husband, Warren, were the Foster Parents of the Year for the area last year.
“Chrystal and I tend to be like-minded in our goals,” Parks said. “We had a friendship almost immediately. We both saw needs for improvements for families in our county.
“They are definitely advocates for the children they have in their home. Chrystal is very strong and passionate about making sure the kids are taken care of in the school system and their needs are being met.”
Adam said they try to focus on the older kids, the teenagers, because a lot of parents who have never had teenagers are afraid of them.
“But we have had teenagers. We have gone through it,” he said.
Adam said there are people who have never had kids, and all of a sudden, “they want to start [providing foster care], and their first placement is a teenager.”
“They are going to go like, I never want kids,” Adam said, joking.
“I think some people are super intimidated by teenagers who are in foster care, but the kids aren’t in foster care because of themselves,” Chrystal said. “They are in foster care because of what has happened to them or what their parents have done.
“I think there is a stigma with foster teens and automatically assuming they are bad children, and they really aren’t. They aren’t bad kids; they have had a lot of traumas. They just want that same love and attention that the younger kids get.”
Scottie Burchett, better known as Grandie, is the biological paternal grandmother of Brady and has known Chrystal since she was about 4 years old. Burchett considers herself the grandmother to 15, including all the Bakers’ children.
“I know how great they are with their own children, and I felt like them being foster parents would be great,” Burchett said. “I knew they would treat foster and adopted kids the same way they treat their own.
“I supported them 100 percent. No matter who ends up at their house, when I meet them, I introduce myself as Grandie — treating them no different than my grandkids.”
Burchett said she treats them all just like any other grandchild.
“We have fun doing whatever we would be doing if they were my blood,” she said. “That’s what I love most about it. They just want and need to be loved, and I have plenty to give. It doesn’t matter that I have 15 grandchildren. There is always room for more.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkasnasonline.com.