Abstract
What an honor to be writing an rticle for The American Federaion of Aviculture, an amazing organization that has supported my daughter Isabella since first hearing her story. Isabella's Aviary Alliance, LLC was created to honor the life and dreams of my incredible daughter Isabella. Her life passion is parrots, and her dream is to help other special needs children through our parrot breeding and training efforts. This is our story.
On January 20, 2013, our world was completely destroyed in one horrible afternoon during a visit to the neurologist. My 10 year old daughter, Isabella, was diagnosed with neurodegenerative disease, similar to Alzheimer's Disease in a child. The early weeks after diagnosis were a blur of tears, sleepless nights, and unimaginable pain. I grieved the experiences I would likely never have with my daughter: watching her start and finish college, getting married - or becoming a mother - and then there were times that I wondered whether I would get to watch her grow at all.
In early February she asked me whether her parakeets could have babies so that she could be a mommy too. With that one simple and innocent request, a new future and purpose took hold for us.
I realized that Isabella's life was being right now, and that my dark spiral of emotions had no place near the beautiful life of my daughter. I contacted my friend, Alycia Antheunisse, from Cedar Hills Birds, and asked which types of birds would breed quickly. Alycia and her husband, Eric, generously donated a pair of Green-cheek conures and cockatiels to support Isabella's dreams.