By Deb Petersen
You can’t help but notice the playfulness in Tenille Rauls when you meet her. There’s a brightness in her eyes, an energy about her that seems almost childlike. You attribute it to her petite size and the fact that she’s absolutely darling. When you get to know her, even a little, you quickly realize that while she is terrifically in touch with her inner 9-year-old, capable of playing in the snow, putting smiley faces on her pizzas, and having tea parties in the pink and zebra-print room in her home, there is nothing childish about this woman.
For starters, she’s a highly experienced nurse practitioner in the field of neurosurgery. As a hospitalist, she helped open the neuro intensive care unit on the Raleigh campus of Duke University Medical School. Before that, she served as nurse practitioner, both in and out of the hospital, for Dr. Sam Almefty when he was chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas Medical School.
“Tenille is all heart and energy,” Dr. Almefty wrote in an email to me when asked about his work with Tenille. He is currently the director of skull base surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School. “She is unbelievable. She takes on with no hesitation every good cause, from outstanding care of her patients to helping friends, providing foster homes to disadvantaged children, medical assistance in Haiti, and other benevolent ventures. She gets it done perfectly with skills, intelligence, ability, and dedication.”
She’s tenacious. She tends to know what she wants, and she stays with an idea until she makes it happen. She runs marathons.
On her first day as a freshman at the University of Central Arkansas, Tenille told her mother she had met, in the food court, the man she would marry—Russ Rauls. And she did.
At church in Little Rock one Sunday in 2007, Tenille saw a presentation about The Call, an organization that finds foster homes for children in Arkansas.
“I want to do that,” she told Russ.
“We can’t do it,” he said, being practical. He was in medical school, they lived in an apartment, and Tenille worked 70-hour weeks for Dr. Almefty to support the couple.
She tucked away the idea of helping with The Call, but it wouldn’t be forgotten.
When Russ joined Knox Orthopaedics and the couple moved to Mountain Home in June 2011, Tenille had some time on her hands.
“I jumped in,” she says. She volunteered and got involved wherever she could, and the community embraced her.
“They have loved and hugged on me,” she says humbly. “I’m so grateful.”
That December, Tenille was helping Russ at the clinic when a 5-year-old girl was brought in with bruises and a broken arm. She was dirty. Tenille’s radar lit up. Health care providers are mandated to report suspected child abuse, and Tenille made the appropriate report.
“She needed surgery,” Tenille says, “so we saw her often.”
They kept an eye on the girl, and when she arrived for an appointment with her cast in a state of disintegration, Tenille took further action. She went to the Department of Human Services and sat down, determined not to leave until someone did something about the girl’s situation.
“I know she was nervous and somewhat concerned about my reaction,” says Pat Blade, DHS supervisor at the time, now retired. “I was not upset at all and appreciated her caring and taking the time to share.”
The child’s family lived in another county, not Baxter, and she had been placed in yet another county. Pat looked into the situation and mentioned to Tenille that she wished Baxter County had its own chapter of The Call. That’s all Tenille needed to hear. It was time.
In March 2012, four local people called DHS independent of each other, all asking about getting involved with opening The Call in Baxter County. One of them was Tenille. Lonnie Robinson, April Webb, and Amy Ponder were the others. It turns out Amy Ponder was at the same Little Rock church service as Tenille.
By November of that year, The Call in Baxter County was up and running with Tenille as county coordinator.
Since then, the group has opened 12 foster homes and placed nearly 50 children from Baxter County in foster care. The organization’s motto: no waiting children in Arkansas foster care.
Foster families complete an application, go through a background check and home inspection, and receive 30 hours of training during two weekends, provided free by The Call under the direction of DHS, which has final approval of homes.
Families receive significant training on how to help a child who has experienced trauma.
“It’s been amazing to see the number of people who step up to help,” Tenille says. “DHS is overworked and overwhelmed. We help them, but we don’t close homes or take children from homes.”
The organization is faith-based, multidenominational, and there are different ways families can be involved—becoming an adoptive family, providing temporary foster care, serving as respite care for two weeks or less, or supporting foster families by stepping in for three days to give them a break.
Tenille’s parents, Bill and Donna West, help in that way, giving the couple a chance to travel now and then.
Tenille and Russ have three children of their own—Lexi, 10, Lauren, 7, and Will, 5. They have had 10 foster kids since June 2013, ranging in length of time from 48 hours to 15 months. The pink zebra-print room in the Rauls home is theirs.
One of their foster children is now back with his father, but Tenille has cared for the boy since he was three months old (Carlos calls her mama), and she still takes him to school every day and picks him up after school until his dad is home from work. Carlos and his dad have become part of the Rauls family.
Some days are hectic, depending on how many children are in the Rauls home at one time. Tenille juggles getting them all to various schools on time and back home again.
In addition to being mom, foster mom, and Baxter County coordinator for The Call, she volunteers at the Christian Clinic in Mountain Home, went to Haiti for eight days where her group saw 1,000 patients in three days, and yes, she runs marathons.
“It’s my outlet,” she says. She runs with best friend Michelle Webb.
“Tenille and I started running three years ago, and I couldn’t go a single mile,” Michelle says. “She is super athletic and a natural. Me, not so much. We got to the 5K and I was so excited. She suggested we shoot for a half marathon. I hadn’t even caught my breath yet after the 5K. She pushed me and encouraged me, and we signed up for the Little Rock Half Marathon that spring.”
Since then, Tenille and Michelle have lost count of the half marathons they’ve run.
In August 2014, Michelle’s 4-year-old nephew, Trevor Trumbo, died of a brain tumor.
“Losing him was gut wrenching,” Michelle says. “We decided if we were going to do a marathon, now was the time. We would run the St. Jude Marathon in Trevor’s memory.”
They trained for several months, getting up at 3:30 in order to get long runs in before the day started.
“We laughed and we bawled on those runs,” Michelle says. “Runners will tell you, the pretty, shiny person you are during the day comes apart during a long run. The emotions and struggles in life pour out during a two-hour run.
Training for a marathon is a metaphor for life. Sometimes you just don’t think you can. Sometimes you don’t want to. And most of the time it requires a friend and support system to get you there. We take turns pulling each other out of the doubt pit. We do that for each other in running and in our overall lives.”
Michelle adds: We truly need each other in order to accomplish big things.
The children of Baxter County in need of an advocate, of someone with a big heart who isn’t afraid of showing her inner child or accomplishing very big things, are lucky that Tenille Rauls and friends are on their team. M! April/May 2015
If you are interested in helping The Call, or know of a child in need of assistance, you can reach Tenille at 501-231-3011 or baxtercounty@thecallinarkansas.org. Find more information at thecallinarkansas.org.
Barbara Davenport
Tennille Rauls has been a very big blessing to our family. She is just as sweet as can be and has such a loving spirit. She is a fine example of what a Christian woman can be. She will have many stars in her crown!! I pray God will bless her with a long prosperous life.