‘For real and FOREVER’
Batesville teacher thrives in role as mom
The weight of motherhood was officially dropped on Cassie Black on adoption day.
“When the judge read the proclamation, or creed, I felt this enormous weight of being a parent,” Black said. “It was a fear, responsibility and the honor of being given this gift.
“I was more afraid than when I had these two tiny babies. There was this eternal weight of motherhood. This is for real and forever. I am their mom forever.”
Black, who lives in Batesville and is a music teacher at Sulphur Rock Elementary School, opened her home to foster children in 2013. Her first placement was then 15-month-old Knox and his newborn baby sister, Nora Lu. The two were officially adopted by Black in December 2014.
Black originally said no to foster the two siblings.
“I said, ‘ What do you mean, two?’ ‘What do you mean, baby?’” Black said. “I knew there was a possibility of one of them going into a shelter, and I didn’t want them to be separated, so I said I would take them.
“I never imagined that almost eight years later, they would be mine.”
Black also volunteers as the family support coordinator for The CALL in Independence County. She helps current foster families, as well as perspective foster and adoptive families. However, she is not an open foster home anymore.
“I continued to do foster care after I adopted Knox and Nora, and for about a year and a half, we had a teenager that we are still in contact with,” she said. “The goal of a foster family is to reunite families.
My role is to be here and be a safe place for kids, a landing spot for now.
“I only said yes to the adoption when their parents’ rights were terminated.”
Black said that during the first six months of fostering the siblings, her No. 1 goal was making sure “everybody was alive and asleep.”
“I continued to work full time and never took a day off,” Black said. “I just went through the motions and got them to bed.
“At some point, it definitely clicked [that I was their mom] — the first time we went to the grocery store and seeing other people look at me with empathy,” she said.
Black’s younger sister, Mollie Hill, and her husband, Chris Hill, would come over almost every night and help change diapers and give baths.
“They fell in love with the kids, and after I adopted Knox and Nora, they opened as a foster home,” Black said. “They are a rockstar family.”
Mollie Hill said her sister’s experience and faithfulness did open her and her husband’s eyes to the reality of foster care and adoption.
“It opened our eyes to the need in our community for people to stand in the waiting with kids — waiting for them to be reunited with their family or waiting to be the alternative option as a family when the former was not an option,” Hill said. “Cassie is such a genuinely kind and caring person.
“She loves her people very well and is always thinking of what is in the best interest of those around her.
“She is selfless and the best listener.”
Hill is the literacy-specialist facilitator for the Batesville School District, and she and her husband have also adopted two children. She said Black moving into that role as a mom was really seamless.
“Cassie is the oldest of the three of us, and she really fit into that oldest-child role,” Hill said. “She would help and do things for us. I remember that when our sister, Hannah, was a baby, Cassie loved taking care of her.
“She has always been a caring person who offers advice or has a shoulder to cry on. She is the most genuine, caring person.”
Black said that even though she is a single mom, she didn’t have to jump through extra hoops to prove that she could foster or adopt a child.
“I feel there is a bit of a misconception that is probably blown out of proportion,” she said. “I had to prove I had income left over at the end of the month and that I was financially stable, and I had to have a home.
“[They were] the same hoops that any foster or adoptive family has to do before opening your home.”
She said a lot of single people are afraid they can’t foster because they are single, but Black said she knows quite a few single foster parents and adoptive parents, including two single men.
“It is definitely becoming more of a norm,” she said. “The need is so much bigger than the resources we have. If somebody can provide a loving home for kids, it doesn’t matter if you are single or married.
“It is a tragedy how few homes we have open in foster care. Anybody who is willing to step up and help is needed and wanted.”
Black said there is a need for single women as foster parents.
“We might have young girls who might be in a dangerous situation and have negative feelings toward men and would be more comfortable in a home with a single woman,” she said. “When I first opened my home as a foster parent, my initial plan was to be a foster family for teenage girls.
“This is not what I envisioned, but it is definitely awesome. It has been such a fun ride that we are on.”
According to the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services, in 2020, 228 youth aged out of foster care in Arkansas.
“There are tons of kids who age out of foster care that have been available for adoption for years and never been adopted,” Black said. “I think there is a stigma attached to older kids because they are usually angry or come with a lot of baggage, but just like the babies and little ones, they also want and need a loving home.”
Jeremy Sullivan, pastor at The Compass Church in Batesville, has known Black for more than 15 years. He said Black was probably the first person outside of his family to change his son’s diaper.
“Before she had her own kids, she was very involved with ours,” he said. “[Her home] was probably the first one our son spent the night at, other than at our parents’ house.”
“We knew she would be a great mom.”
He said one thing he admired about Black was how she didn’t wait for the circumstances to be right, such as being married or having just the right job.
“She has exemplified how now is the time to do the things you know you should do. I think she has settled into who she is as a mom,” Sullivan said. “She seems more comfortable being who she is as a mom.
“She is a fantastic mom, of course, but she seems more comfortable, more at ease and more confident.”
Black said having two “exceptional” kids such as Nora Lu and Knox has made the process easier.
“We fit really well together,” Black said.
“She is in her element as a mother,” Hill said. “It has been such a cool and unique experience to see God use her and to grow her into who she is.
“I feel privileged to get a front-row seat to her journey with motherhood and to be Knox and Nora Lu’s aunt.”