Over the last few months, the need for foster families in our state has become desperate, according to one of the larger foster home licensing agencies in the county.
Child Crisis Arizona reported last month there were only two open beds in the nearly 200 homes currently licensed with the agency. And, even though the number of children in the system has gone down in recent years, there are still 13,000 children in foster care in our state.
So, what does it take to become a foster parent? And why do people decide to do it? To shed some light on those questions, The Show sat down with Lea Phillips. She and her husband became foster parents two years ago and, now, they are adoptive parents to a nine-year-old boy they began fostering in 2018.
She said she has always wanted to be a foster parent since she watched foster kids on TV shows like Maury when she was a kid. But it didn’t take her long to realize the process to become one is not easy — logistically and emotionally.
