Shellee Amarillas
Program Coordinator, Interstate Adoption Program
Building Arizona Families
Surprise, AZ
Anyone who has ever gone through the process of adoption can agree it is much like riding a roller coaster. By the time you hear the much treasured words, "You have been matched" it is so hard to believe, especially when you were not selected on other occasions.
I want to give a lot of credit for our success in getting our children to our case worker, Shellee Amarilles and Building Arizona Families, our agency. We would have never really known what to expect or how to get through it all without her. She is always available, she loves her work, and she always calls us back. She has become our friend, not just our case worker.
She watched out for us through the whole process and now for our children also. Some people do their work to get a paycheck. Shellee does this work for the reward of matching families with "their" children and watching it work because she gets to know you so well. I have a knack for purchasing land---Shellee has a knack for matching and making families that work. We love her and respect her for the wonderful job she does and all the personal sacrifices she makes to be here for us all.
Sherry and Bryan Hill
Adoptive family
Buckeye, AZ
"Building Arizona Families is an adoption agency that provides home studies, domestic adoptions, international adoptions and interstate adoptions. I am the program coordinator for the Interstate Adoption Program, which conducts direct adoptive placements for children in the foster care system nation wide. Our Interstate Program is something that I enjoy doing more than anything. We work hard to help match children and get them placed with are wonderful families here in Arizona. It is important that the children who remain in the foster care system, find their forever family and have a chance to be a kid again no matter the age. I am so proud to be involved in this program, as I get much enjoyment and satisfaction with seeing children finally go home---to their forever families. In much respects, it seems like the right kid’s always make their way to the right family. I love to see both our families and the children merge together. It is nice to show the world that foster children are great kids that deserve a family and a chance at having a wonderful life.
My work with Bryon and Sherry Hill has seen it’s tough times. Bryon and Sherry have raised four children. They decided to adopt to become parents again and to reach out to the many children who need a family. Bryon and Sherry Hill dedicated themselves to the process of adoption and went in heart first. They were matched with children and that matched never happened… Then they were finally matched with a sibling group of four from Texas . It was as if these four children have been waiting just for Bryon and Sherry all this time. When these children came home, it was a perfect family!
As a social worker, working with adoptive families, I want their experience to be real, heartfelt and for the right reasons. Bryon and Sherry Hill had periods of sadness throughout their adoption journey. This is a strong family who possesses the ability to parent, love and provide a wonderful home for these four children. In the end, the right children always come home." - Shellee Amarillas
Read the press release.