For the past year and a half the State has been asking us to recruit more homes. And we are. But the process is timely and seeing the fruits of our labors takes at least 6 months – too long when we are seeing 400 new children removed each month. Relief may be in sight though!

HRT has been asked by the State to pilot an accelerated PS-MAPP schedule. Beginning in September, we will be offering PS-MAPP on an accelerated schedule in Maricopa County, allowing families to complete training in 7 weeks instead of the traditional 10 weeks. We are making changes that will assist families with completing the licensing process in half the time!

We still need families willing to step up though, filling the gap is a joint effort – we can’t do it alone.

HRT is looking forward to helping ease the shortage by licensing families and placing children quicker! Contact our Recruiter at michellel@hrtaz.com or 602-433-1344 to learn more about this program
and find out if you qualify!

The simple answer is yes, we do get attached. We should be getting attached to the children in our home. They need us to attach them and they need to attach to us. Attachment is the basis of human nature, it’s how we learn important life skills such as empathy, how to be a friend, and a desire to have positive interactions with others. Many of the kids that come into the foster care system have been taught (through experience so often) that adults are not to be trusted.

The long answer sounds like this…I don’t think of my growing attachment to the children in my home or the sadness I will feel when they leave as something painful or something to dread. I see it as a sign that I’m doing this foster parenting thing right!

When I got my first snuggle on the couch, my first hug, or heard “I’m going with mom!” I smiled, because at that point I knew I was having an influence on the young lives in my home. They were learning that I could be trusted, that although I turn down their requests for cookies for breakfast or put them in time out for pinching other children, I’m still someone that cares about them, will meet their needs, and that they can rely on. That trust is a seed I’ve planted - a model that they might think back on later in life when they need to be reminded that they are important and there are other ways of relating to people.

As far as letting them go, yes, it will probably hurt (so far only 1 has left our home and it was after just a few days). Would we adopt if asked? Probably not. Not right now anyway. We became foster parents because of the nearly 13,000 kids in Arizona that can’t be with their parents temporarily. We work with the birth parents as allowed in hopes that they will also begin to trust us just as their children are learning to do.

Ultimately our goal is for kids to be able to live with their parents again, safely. Until then we can respond with a resounding “We will!” when a birth parent says at the end of a phone call, “Please take care of my little girl.” Then when the time is right, we can be the ones to say “Please take care of your little girl!”

And then we’ll answer the next phone call for children that need our home, our love, and our nurturing for a little while.