Foster parents consider work with children a spiritual calling

The two sets of foster parents in Sisters who take care of the most difficult, older children in the state system both say they foster parent because it is their "calling from God."

Blanche, 59, and Orville Tadlock, 60, are full-time foster parents who have housed about 50 teenage foster boys over the last 22 years, with as many as eight in their home at once.

Lee Bellahdid, a single foster parent in his early 30s, and coach of the Sisters High School Girls' Varsity Soccer Team, has housed 12 teenage boys in the last two years, with as many as four in his home at once.

Bellahdid said he found hope in Jesus Christ after he fled from Algeria as a refugee from a militant Islamic political group. Shortly after that, he began working to help reform juveniles in a youth detention center in Mauritania.

"Ever since I left Mauritania, only doors have opened to me to minister to youth," Bellahdid said. "So far, I have maximized that calling as much as I can. I cannot tell you, on this day I decided to do foster care, but I don't look at it as a job, I look at it as a ministry."

Orville Tadlock was a foster child for three years. Before that, he lived with his "dysfunctional family" and was arrested for a number of juvenile offenses, he said. But, when he was 15 years old, he moved in with his second foster family -- a couple that was in their 60s -- and they loved him like their own son, he said.

Those parents so inspired Orville that he named his first son, Jeff, after his foster dad. Those foster parents and Orville's relationship with Jesus Christ, which he said started when he was 26 years old, have spurred him to want to give back.

Orville told The Nugget that when he considers that Jesus never turns him away despite his failures, he cannot turn away any child from his door, no matter what they have done.

"Before I married Orville, one of the things I always wanted my home to be, was to have an open door for whoever needed a place to stay or was downhearted," Blanche Tadlock said. "Well, I have a husband that has never turned anyone from our door, ever. No matter who they are. No matter what they've done to us. There have been many, many foster children in our homes. Some have hurt us very deeply and yet have come back and wanted to know if they could live with us and Orville has always said yes."

Many of the foster children come from broken families, with parents who are addicted to drugs, or are sexually, physically or verbally abusive.

Pyromania, theft, sexual disorders, running away, deception and aggression are some of the challenges the two foster families have faced with the children.

Jim Golden, assistant principal of Sisters High School, said the high school has had sex offenders among foster students.

He said he worked closely with foster parents to help develop individual programs for special-needs students.

"Some of the parents taught them skills and they are paid to keep the kids, so there are ones who get really good homes and there are parents who do it just for the money," Golden said.

"The Tadlocks are Christians in the true sense of the word, doing things they believe is their calling to do. I have the utmost respect for them."

Asa Gemignani, Sisters area certifier for the Oregon Department of Human Services, said foster parents receive $343 to $450 per month for each child.

"To some, that's enough; to some, that's not enough," Gemignani said.

"There are some in it for financial reason and I think people misconstrue that because in order to help a disabled child, you must have an income to support it. If you have a child with ADHD, then $400 per month is not enough to support all of the activities they are involved in. We can give more, but the money is not really enough beyond what will support the child."

Blanche Tadlock said foster care is her family's only source of income, but she laughed at the idea of doing it for the money.

"It's a laugh," she said. "You basically get enough to feed and clothe the child you have. If you're doing it for the money, you won't stay in it for very long."