Fostering love: Candace Cartwright makes a difference for Bell County children

By Amy Rognlie | Photo courtesy of Candace Cartwright

From stay-at-home mom to president of a thriving nonprofit, Candace Cartwright has quite a story to tell. Her organization, Foster Love Bell County, located in Belton, is made up of people who are making a real difference in the lives of the Bell County child welfare system. Founded by Cartwright in 2017, Foster Love works tirelessly to raise awareness and mobilize the community to care for those in the child welfare system.

But before Foster Love was even a tiny seed of an idea, Cartwright can trace the beginning of her remarkable story to her childhood, remembering a middle-of-the-night flight from her abusive biological father.

“I know a little bit about abandonment and adoption,” she says.

In addition, Cartwright’s mom grew up in a dysfunctional home. “She really should have been in foster care,” Cartwright reflects. “I grew up hearing her stories and watching her struggle and her trauma. As an adult, I often wondered why someone didn’t step in.”

Fast forward to 2010 when Cartwright and her husband, Tim, had just had their third biological child. The busyness of life and three small children was threatening to eat her alive.

Nevertheless, Cartwright felt God stirring her heart and mind to consider foster care and adoption.

“I was rocking my 3-week-old son and I had this moment where I just knew we were supposed to adopt,” Cartwright says. “It was so clear — as if God were saying, ’This is what I have for you’.”

She told Tim about it but let him know she was not ready to talk about it for a long time.

“Not for a year,” she laughs. “That was our deal.”

A year later, Cartwright and her husband attended their first foster care interest meeting. Tim was on board from day one, Cartwright says, but she remained unconvinced.

“I think I was fearful of losing control,” she reflects. “The foster and adoption process has so many twists and turns and surprises…it is totally unpredictable.”

Finally, months later and with the willingness to “just take the next step of obedience” the two began their training to become licensed foster parents.

By September 2015, God had, as Cartwright says, “graciously changed a heart to agree with His.” After fostering for two years, the Cartwrights adopted their son, Owen.

After the adoption was finalized, the Cartwrights closed their home to other foster children. But they had seen and learned so much from being in the system that they knew they could not just walk away and not do anything.

“I became a CASA advocate, but always had this feeling if people had seen the things I had seen, they’d be quick to jump on board with helping. But I didn’t know how to go about that. So, I began to pray, and my mind was drawn to a little guy we’d had in our home for a short time that had come to us with all of his stuff in a small trash bag. I didn’t know at the time that this was common,” she says. “Children most often go into care with nothing or with all of their things put in a trash bag. And so I thought, ’This is something my friends and I could do something about.’”

She sent out an email and put together a bag project called “My Very Own Bag.” There was so much interest after that project, that she created a group on Facebook.

After the group was created, things began to snowball. Cartwright began meeting people and building relationships in the child welfare system within Bell County, and the small group on Facebook began to grow rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that she was soon overwhelmed with running it alone.

She realized that to make the work sustainable, she had to collaborate with other organizations, churches, professionals with expertise to make this something that would create a lasting impact in our community.

“Over the course of the last four years, that’s what the Lord has done. I really take no credit other than being willing,” Cartwright explains.

“It’s hard to sum up ’the’ problem facing children as a whole in our community. The breakdown of the family plays a huge part. This could be due in part to drugs, domestic violence, sexual or physical abuse, neglect, etc., etc.,” she says.

“But, in my opinion, the solution to these things is always the same: the Church being a part of setting crooked things straight. We get to be the ones to come alongside those who find themselves in situations where they need love and compassion. I believe that’s what we’re here for. To bring God glory and to help reconcile broken areas of the world. I hope that is what Foster Love Bell County will always be about.”

She glances around the Foster Love living room at the 150-some bags filled with essentials for recent kinship placements. “I’ve always been hesitant to step out and do things because I was resting on my own skills, knowledge or abilities. That held me back a lot — thinking I’m not capable. And on paper, I’m not. But with something like Foster Love, God just takes that out of the equation. He gets the glory when we simply put the ’yes’ on the table.”