Local couple honored for foster care work
A local couple’s kindness toward the foster care community recently earned them recognition in Washington, D.C.
Angela and Samuel Coston were honored as Angels in Adoption for their nonprofit ministry For the Sake of One, which provides material, emotional and spiritual support for everyone involved in the local foster care system. Rep. John Ratcliffe chose the Costons
for the award from Texas’ 4th Congressional District.
A program of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, Angels in Adoption “honors a wide spectrum of individuals and organizations making extraordinary contributions to adoption, permanency and child welfare,” according to the CCAI website.
The Costons traveled to D.C. to attend an awards ceremony, network with other foster and adoption advocates and meet with Ratcliffe in his office. They were among 108 honorees, only two of which were from Texas.
It was a long way from For the Sake of One’s beginnings six years ago, when the couple first decided to foster a child themselves. Both educators, they had in mind a school-age child whose schedule would fit well with their own, Angela Coston said in an interview Thursday.
“And our first call was for a two-day-old baby. We had absolutely nothing for a baby. But he came on a Friday, and by the end of the weekend, people had brought us a crib and diapers and wipes and formula and everything we needed for a baby. So that was what kind of launched For the Sake of One. We thought every foster family should be treated the way we were treated and be supported in that way,” she said.
The baby, Trent, is now 6 years old, big brother to the Costons’ biological sons Moses, 3, and Ambrose, 8 months.
With about 300 foster children at any given time in Miller County, Ark., Bowie County, Texas, and Cass County, Texas, but only 30 foster homes available, the Costons felt a calling to be of service. They began For the Sake of One as a church ministry about a year after Trent arrived and established it as a nonprofit organization in May 2017.
The organization serves as a resource for children in the system, their foster and biological parents and the government case workers on the front lines of helping families in crisis.
For the Sake of One provides donated items such as clothes free of charge, both to foster families and to biological families at risk of having children removed from the home.
“We don’t want kids to be removed because of poverty. So we’re able to help keep kids in the family, which is the ultimate goal,” Angela Coston said.
For the Sake of One may give away used items that have been donated, whereas anything government agencies give families must be new.
The organization also partners with churches and other groups to provide more than 100 children a year with school supplies and Christmas gifts.
Every other month, For the Sake of One holds a parents’ night out, providing three hours of child care to give foster parents a break. Regular support group meetings for parents give them a chance to share their struggles and help each other.
Case workers are not left out. For the Sake of One connects each with a volunteer “encourager” who commits to pray for
them, send them weekly messages and give them monthly “goodies.” It’s a service that Angela Coston sees as vital.
“(Case workers are) very overworked, underpaid and see the worst of the worst. They’re the ones that have to do removals in the middle of the night. And so there’s a huge turnover rate. Kids have a much better chance of a permanent place if they have just one case worker who knows their story and follows them through,” she said.
“My encourager is wonderful,” said Callie Perkins, a Texas Child Protective Services case worker and For the Sake of One board member. “Some of those days, it’s been one of the worst days at the job, and it’s just been a boost.”
Perkins was among several people who nominated the Costons to be Angels in Adoption, and she praised the couple’s generosity.
“They just have servant hearts. They’re very willing to help however needed. They see a crisis, and they just jump in and try to help with it. They’re very giving, very good people,” she said.
Donations and volunteers are always needed and welcome, Angela Coston said, though at the moment she has more than enough children’s clothes and is not accepting any more until further notice. She suggested keeping an eye on the organization’s Facebook page for requests for specific items such as cribs.
For more information, contact For the Sake of One at 903-3290566 or fsotxk@gmail.com or visit forthesakeofone.com.