Izzy

A big, exciting change has happened in our home. My niece, Izzy, is living in Kansas City with us. Izzy is a delightful kiddo who has been bravely working through trauma she endured while living with her mom several years ago. She was doing a great job working through this trauma while living in Tucson with her dad, who is my brother Rusty A.K.A. James, but her progress stalled. We are hoping that a fresh start, different approach, and additional resources will help Izzy continue to flourish.

Izzy is currently a sophomore in high school and has been working really hard on her school work, therapy, taking care of herself, and getting acclimated to all things Kansas City, including an aunt and uncle she hasn't had a whole lot of contact with. She's been doing really well. Robert and I love her and we are trying. There have been challenges, but more than enough positive, beautiful moments to outweigh the challenges.

When Rachel moved up here a few years ago we spent some time building what we call The Rachel Team, which grew and grew as she progressed through high school. Robert and I have been working on building an Izzy team that includes family, a therapist, an educational advocate to help us with her IEP, an entire army of phenomenal high school staff that are moving mountains for her, and our small but mighty circle of friends. Izzy is doing great so far. I feel like we're all working well together and Izzy feels loved and is flourishing. I don't think this will be an easy battle. Some people have gigantic monsters to battle, monsters they couldn't escape and struggle to defeat, and Izzy is one of those people. Thankfully she is positive, loving, imaginative, tenacious, a self-advocate, and has energy for days (energy we may need to borrow). 

Currently we have been working on making sure her planner is up-to-date each day. Izzy struggles to retain information, but once she gets in the habit of doing something or she has a list to help her, she does an excellent job getting her school work done. Her teachers have been signing off on her planner each day so we know what her homework is and we can help her with it. Robert has been tackling math with her, and Izzy and I read aloud her assigned books together. Science and theater have been trickier and both Robert and I continue to make efforts, but those are not our stronger areas. Thankfully Izzy's team at school has been helping her (and us) learn her science homework.

There has been a lot of learning and growth not just for Izzy, but for Robert and I as well. Blogging has definitely taken a backseat currently, in addition to a handful of other things.  As I find a new balance with work, my own personal goals/obligations, Izzy, Rachel, Robert, and family in general, I'll start blogging more.

Here are a few pictures of her Kansas City journey thus far:



As soon as we knew Izzy wanted to stay and give Kansas City a try we began telling our close friends. They've been bringing Izzy clothes (a big help since Izzy didn't have winter clothes), helping us find resources, offering advice during sticky situations, and even inviting us to church, which is something Izzy enjoys. The above picture is of Ann, who brought Izzy a welcome to Kansas City pie.

We are fortunate that Rachel has been coming home most weekends. We know that's typical during the first semester but beginning with the second semester, not as much. This is what a good weekend evening looks like for us. We've been trying to create time to unwind together and will usually hang out together working on separate projects. I started a couple different journals with Izzy and we've had a good time working on them together.

Izzy's also a whiz in the kitchen and quick to help make and prepare things with us. She also has shared a few of her go-to recipes with us. I finally found someone who will eat tuna mac with me and squeal excitedly about it too.

This is Izzy's first-day-of-school picture.

And her birthday picture. We took her out for sushi. Like Rachel, she really likes all things fishy. 

We've been to visit dad a few times and Izzy has been enjoying the heck out of hanging out with him and his cats.

I will keep you updated!