A Frustrating Fostering Rule

In the state of Arizona, you cannot be a foster family, unless you have completely vaccinated your own children.  You can agree to fully vaccinate your foster children, but unless you fully vaccinate your own children, you can't foster.  Period.  There are no exceptions, so even if you do not fully vaccinate because your child had an adverse reaction, it doesn't matter, you still cannot foster.  There are supposed to be a few exemptions, but based on what we have been being told from case workers and DES workers, they are not seeing any being made.



According to the article I will link to below, the reasoning behind the rule is because they want to limit exposure to diseases for foster children.  The problem I see with this is that, if the vaccinations the foster children are receiving are working, they can't catch anything from unvaccinated children anyway.  The other problem I have with this is that any child who goes to daycare or school, where they do allow vaccine exemptions, or the grocery store, or the doctor's office, or the park or the... well, you get the picture... can be exposed to a countless number of things.  There is always potential for them to be exposed to something, because you cannot keep them in a bubble.

There are, quite literally, children sleeping in CPS offices because they don't have any place for them to go.  The number of kids in foster care have gone up 20% while the number of adoptions through DES have gone down 35% in the past 2 years.  These kids NEED families.  I, personally, know of 3 families that want to foster, but are being turned away because of the rules about vaccinations.  These are loving, caring, and amazing families that WANT these children, and are being told no.   Some of them have even fostered in Arizona previously, but let their license expire, and can't get in under the current rules.  This really saddens me.  Though we are getting close to bring our Ramya home, I always thought that one day way down the line we may foster.  We were vaccinating on a slower, selective schedule.  At this point, though, we don't feel comfortable continuing Madi's vaccines after her seizure.  We may not feel like this forever, but for right now, we're putting things on pause.  Because of this, we will never be allowed to foster, unless the rules change.

Here is an article from our local news station on the rule:  http://www.azfamily.com/news/Family-hoping-to-foster-children-runs-into-problem-with-the-state-165817306.html?fb_action_ids=332881333468929&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22332881333468929%22%3A10151006774708002%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22332881333468929%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map

I know that there are lots of opinions and facts on vaccines, and no two people will probably ever agree on what is "right" or "wrong".  I do believe, though, that we are doing a big disservice to our children by keeping them out of families that want them.  I am planning to write a letter to DES and our local Representatives requesting that they reconsider the rule and allow non-vaccinating families to children in crisis situations, as long as they agree to keep the child they are fostering on the correct schedule (which all 3 families I know that were told "no" all said that they were willing to do).  No babies should be sleeping in CPS offices when there are families that want them! 

If you would like to write a letter as well, here is the information:

 http://www.azleg.gov/


MemberRoster.asp

... and...

Clarence Carter, Director of DES
602-542-6600
Fax: 602-542-5339
ccarter@azdes.gov

Our Latest Blessing and a Madi Update

We have had some amazing blessings lately that I just had to share.  One of our missional communities at Church has decided to target orphans and widows and do mission work in those areas.  Because our adoption falls in that category, they have come beside us to support us in the last stretch of fundraising efforts.  We have a Peter Piper Pizza fundraiser coming up (more details on that soon!) that they are helping us organize and plan, and of course we also have our big garage sale coming up April 20th and 21st.  Last night their group came to help us organize and sort through some of the goodies we have received.  They were a HUGE help, and it was such a blessing for us!  Additionally, a few people bought some of our sale items, and then gave us generous over-payments to help us along.  Thanks to them, our garage is caught up on (until we get more donations in :)) AND we are $71 closer to reaching our goal.  WOOO HOOO! 

We also got a check in the mail from one of my very best friends and her hubby as a donation for two of our fundraising bracelets.  They were very generous and giving, and their thoughtfulness really touched us!  Thanks to them, we are an additional $50 closer to meeting our fundraising goal.  YEAH!  We are SO close now!!

It is such an amazing blessing to have so many loving, caring, and selfless people in our lives.  God has truly blessed us beyond measure!  When times are hard (like they were with Madi in the hospital this last week), their words of encouragement, prayers, and love keep us going strong!  If you are one of these people in our lives, thank you for walking this journey with us and being such a great support.




In other news, we saw the pediatrician today for a follow-up to our hospital stay and Madi's seizure. The doctor said he's pretty sure the seizure was not from the UTI (the urologist also agrees that it most likey was not from that) since she was not symptomatic for the UTI, etc...  He did feel, though, it could have been from the MMR vaccine or from getting hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and basically said there will be no way for us to know for sure which one caused it.  The MMR is a much harder vaccine on the system because the rubella portion contains a live strain.  Of course, they don't have them separately, so the only option is the combo vaccine or not at all.  We won't give her any more MMR vaccines, for obvious reasons, but I am torn on what to do with the other vaccines she really should get before going to India.  Right now our options are not to take her, to give her the remaining 4 vaccines she needs to be covered to go (1 Hep A, 1 DTAP, and 2 polio (spread out by about 6 months each), or go without being fully protected with the ones that are recommended for India travel.  Her pediatrician feels she would do fine with these vaccines since she's had them before (except polio) and none of them are live.  He also feels that, as long as I bring her seizure medication so I can stop it, it would be safe to take her, even if she does end up needing to go in the hosital there.  I'm not convinced yet, though, on doing any more vaccines, and plan to talk it through with our naturopathic doctor about it on Thursday.  I'd hate to leave her behind, but I'd hate to do anything that could cause her long-term issues as well.  Please pray for us as we make this decision.

Unfortunately, when they did the EEG, they saw that she is predispositioned to seizures.  They think that there is a good possibility this could all happen again.  Hopefully it would be few and far between (or never, which I am praying for!!), and not a regular occurrence (which would require seizure medications and extra care).  Either way, they gave me dissolvable tablets I can put in her cheek if she is seizing again so that I can stop the seizure myself.  Please join us in praying that this was a one-time thing and that it won't keep happening.  I did purchase a video baby monitor to put my mind at rest.  I kept going in the room when she was sleeping and made any noise at all, so being able to see her and know that she is safe will give me a lot of necessary piece of mind. 

That's all the updates for now, hopefully we will know more from India and our adoption paperwork soon!!