Welcome!

My name is Jamie, and I am a child of God, the wife of a Sheriff's deputy and National Guardsman, and the momma to six beautiful blessings. We are a his, mine, and ours blended family, and with that has come many challenges. One of our kiddos suffered some traumatic situations before coming to live with us twelve years ago. This caused me to change my major from Business to Family Studies and Human Services. I am also pursuing a minor in Conflict Analysis in Trauma Studies. I am a senior at KState University and will finally be graduating December 2021. It's taken me 23 years but I haven't quit. I am currently taking two classes: Middle Childhood/Adolescence and Working with Parents, both of which are very timely since we are currently raising teenagers, and learning how to work with parents can also make me a better parent. There are many challenges to raising kids in today's society compared to when I was growing up, and we are all constantly learning. My husband and I met while I was living in Manhattan, KS while he was stationed at Fort Riley KS. Shortly after we married we spent four years in Fort Bragg NC and came back to Fort Riley for a couple years before he got out of Active Duty. We made the very difficult decision to get out and move back to KC in order to be closer to my family to help us with the kids. I quickly found a growing passion for Brain Development, and how trauma affects it, as well as Developmental Expectations as we navigated Early intervention with our youngest kiddos and the trauma from several family members' upbringings. I have also gotten really good at identifying the resources our family needed and navigating how to access them. I am the one people call when they need help finding help. I am currenlty the lead of a small food pantry in KCMO that serves roughly 30 families each week. I am also getting more and more involved in the anti trafficking movements in KC. The church I attend is also very passionate about ending human trafficking, and though I was first introduced to the concept when we lived at Bragg I have become more active in it because of our church. I am thankful I was able to take a class in Human Trafficking a few years ago, as well as be a part of the RESTORE research team helping them build a database of all the organizations in the US currently working directly with trafficking victims. I'm sad that list is ever growing but thankful that one exists. I'm not sure exactly what I will be doing after graduation, hopefully something on the prevention side of trafficking (education/awareness which is where these classes will be most helpful) but I know I will be serving the underserved in KC. One random fun fact about me...I spent three weeks in Australia as a People to People Ambassador when I was 16. I would love to go back to Sydney one day, maybe even spend my husband and I's anniversary there, because New Year's Eve in Sydney would be so cool!