Christian

When Ashley and John Herring of Heber Springs, Ark., decided to become foster parents in 2009, they were told there were just four foster homes in Cleburne County. Children taken into state custody in this rural county in the Ozark foothills were often sent to homes or short-term placements in other communities, sometimes hours away.

When Chelsea Geyer heads to the front of a congregation to sell them on helping Washington, D.C.’s child welfare system, the 27-year-old co-founder of DC127 comes with a two-pronged sales pitch that meshes the Good Book with the modern city.

“Mariah has developed her own spiritual path and needs an adoptive family who will honor her beliefs and not attempt to convert her to their own.” “Dylan is open-minded, and he needs his future family to be open-minded about religion and his ideas about attending church.”