High School here we come...

This week I have been really looking at high schools for Kenzie. Yes, she will be a freshman officially in August. Scary! Anyway, I started this process in Jan. when I realized she might be here next year after all. I knew that a regular huge public high school would not work for her. We would surely loose her to who knows what! I have always wanted to send her to a private Christian school but several years ago I realized that would probably not be a good fit for Kenz. All of the Christian schools that I have looked into are very rigorous and high pressured. That will not work for her. So I started by looking at charter schools here in Az. I started with 19 of them from a list by the state. Then I narrowed them down to 9 due to proximity and type of school. Then I began to call them and ask all kinds of questions. I got it down to four that really appealed to me. Then I looked at the internet for any bad things that might have been reported on the school. One of them out of the four did not get good reviews on this one website and you have to wear uniforms. Kenz is totally against that! So I put that one last on the list of four. I decided to visit the remaining three. We went and saw two out of the three so far and I think I have found the one. Kenzie was in agreement too. We enrolled her today, but I plan on looking at the third one just to make sure. The name of the school is Leading Edge Academy and the high school is specifically called Gilbert Early College. It is called this because when they get to be juniors and seniors they can take a shuttle to the Gilbert community college and take courses there. It is also college prepatory. It is housed at a church and get this, even though it is a public charter school, they offer "chapel" once a week. Everybody that goes there says it is a Christian charter school without the tuition. Cool, huh? They also have a performing arts elective and put on a play every year with dancing. Right up Kenzie's alley! When they showed me the auditorium( where they will perform the play) and right in the middle was a big lit up cross, I knew this was the place-along with everything else they told me plus everything we saw. It is a very small school-only 25 freshman next year at most. Right now there are only 77 students in the whole high school. I thought my high school was small. I had a graduating class of about 60. But small is what Kenzie wants-I think it helps her feel less overwhelmed. She left saying "I really like that place, " whereas the other place she said "I don't want to go to high school. It scares me." I am worried about high school and Kenzie and how it all works out with everything that is going on with her. But scripture tells us do not worry about anything but bring it to the Lord in prayer. So that is what I will do. I do feel a little better finding such a good fit-at least we hope so. Things could change.

As far as an update on Kenz and how her behavior and moods are doing...it is up and down. I still do not believe we have the right combo of medication but the psychiatrist is right there working with us. We played phone tag today. Hopefully, I will get to talk to her on Monday. The therapist is awesome and the method is helping in some respects. Her moods still can be so angry but the nurtured heart method usually helps it not spin out of control into a full blown rage. I have to look at it as the cup half full and notice all of the good and keep working on getting the "bad" better. The therapist says that Kenzie is testing us and part of her wants us to go back to the old way because that is what she is used too. She says to hang in there and outlast Kenz. So I plan to with all of the strength from Christ. What would I do if I did not have Him as the Lord of my life?