jews d

Mom
With A
Mission

Meet Erika
Jones, defining
tikkun olam at the
Judson Center.

VIVIAN HENOCH
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

ABOVE: Erika Jones
holds a photo of her
daughter Samantha.

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ever doubt the power of a Jewish
mom determined to repair the
world for a child in need of a lov-
ing home. This is Erika Jones: an adoptive
mom, a foster mom — a passionate and
outspoken mom. In her professional role,
Jones is an advocate for families and chil-
dren in need at the Judson Center. This is
her remarkable story.
How many Jewish foster parents do you
know? Any?
As director of marketing and commu-
nications at the Judson Center, a family
service agency based in Royal Oak, Jones
is working to change what the community
knows and understands about foster care
and adoption in Michigan.
“If there’s one thing I know firsthand,
DNA does not make a family,” she says.
“When it comes to foster care, I truly
believe that foster parenting is tikkun
olam. I have yet to find a better meaning of
repairing our world than offering a loving
home to a child in need.”
The need is dire. Currently, there are
nearly 14,000 children in custody of the
state through the Michigan foster care
system. In Michigan, approximately 3,000
foster children are available for adoption
at any given time and, of those, nearly 300
youth are waiting for their adoptive family
match right now.

ADOPTION VS. FOSTER PARENTING?

According to Jones, foster care is widely
misunderstood and rarely discussed in the
Jewish community.
“I think it’s important to make the dis-
tinction between adoption versus foster
care because there’s a blur between the
two,” she says. “People don’t really under-
stand what foster care is and why we
should care. These days, you hear very little
about the process of domestic adoption
(which is arduous) and even less about
adoption within the Jewish community.
With all the individual means and com-
munity resources here to help, the fact
remains that there is no ‘go-to’ Jewish agen-
cy in our community to provide answers to
questions and to help navigate through the
many options to start the complex process
of adoption.”

ERIKA AND RICK JONES

On a mid-day break from a busy work
week, Erika and Rick Jones met me at
the Judson Center to answer questions.
“Taking care of our kids is the greatest job
we have,” says Rick, a Detroit Metro Airport
firefighter and (when off-duty) happy to be
a stay-at-home dad.
Q: Where to start?
Erika: You get married, you want to
start a family, but things don’t always go

as planned. You hear that all the time with
couples going through IVF. Our timeline
only begins to tell the story of all the life-
changing decisions we’ve made along the
way.
In brief: Rick (who converted to Judaism)
and I were married in 2006. We love kids,
always wanted a family and, as the years
passed, we started to look into the options
of adoption and foster care. We had no
idea where to turn or what to do. We start-
ed by talking to friends, cold-calling agen-
cies, talking to everyone who would listen.
We contacted local Jewish agencies first
— but to no avail — and started doing our
own homework in what turned out to be a
nationwide search. We even gained notice
on Facebook and on Mashable.
In 2010, we were on a waiting list for
private adoption and, in 2011, we also filed
paperwork for foster care. In 2012, through
a private, open adoption, we were blessed
with our beautiful daughter, Sammie.
In 2016, we decided to reopen our fos-
ter license with the goal to help a child in
need, and in September of that year, our
foster son joined us — a fretful 8-month-
old. Today, he is a thriving toddler, and I’m
gratified to say that he will be reunified
with his mom soon. (Side note: foster care
is about providing a nurturing home, most
often on a temporary basis. If a child is

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May 31 • 2018

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JOHN HARDWICK

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