The Next Chapter
“You can’t start the next chapter if you keep re-reading the last.” -Unknown
It the past five months, our family has been working on the draft of our next chapter so to speak. Late last year, it became increasing clear to my husband and me that we were circling round and round in our current “chapter of life,” not making progress, and something needed to change.
I was taking the boys to their speech, occupational and physical therapy sessions three hours away, every other week. That therapy clinic was wonderful to work with. They understood that we could not possibly attend these appointments weekly so, all their staff sat as a team to come up with a schedule that worked for us. They put each boy’s three appointments together, on the same day, for a total of six appointments. They honestly cared and did their best to help us. The challenge was for us to make that work. We had to be there first thing in the morning, and we usually left about 3pm. Travel to the clinic sometimes required an overnight stay in order to make appointment times and ferry schedules work.
The boys did well in their sessions, but it took so much out of them. It would take them about a full week to recover from their three days away from home. We termed these “hangover days.” Those were days with many meltdowns and angry outbursts due to over-stimulation and heightened anxiety. On those days, it felt impossible to leave our home, even to make a quick stop at the market. What made this harder was integrating school into all this. On therapy weeks, E would go to OT at the school, the boys would meet with their teacher for their weekly check-in, then we would rush to catch a ferry for their appointments the next day, staying with family that night. We occasionally would come home the day of therapy, but that was so hard on the boys, who were worn out after three therapy sessions in one day, that we usually stayed a second night.
This left me with very few good days out of every two weeks. Good days were needed to take care of my other responsibilities. I was more than exhausted; the children were unmanageable; it could not go on.
So, after much deliberation, stress, and tears, we decided that we needed to sell our house and move to a more suitable location. This was a very painful decision. We’d been in that small community for more than 20 years, and in our home for about 9 years. My husband had grown up there. We’d planned and designed that house. Hubby’s father had built it. So many special memories. However, family comes first, and we needed to be where we had easy access to the various services that our boys needed– somewhere that could offer them more resources and a calmer routine.
Our house sold in just three weeks, and we had about a month to pack, find a new home, and a new job for my husband. On the weekend following accepting the buyer’s offer, we put our dogs in a kennel, packed up the kids, and headed off to find a home. One of the homes we saw, we loved, and made an offer on. While on our return trip home, we found out that we had lost that home in a bidding war. The real estate market in the area was so “hot” that homes were selling for about 10-15% above listing prices. Many homes were priced out of our budget. It was going to be a challenge to find something.
We needed to go back and look at more houses– the pressure was on and the clock was ticking. How were we going to do this? We knew that the kids couldn’t handle a weekly journey full of house shopping, so the hubby and I decided that the best choice was for him to go down on weekends, work with a realtor, and video conference with me at the homes so I could “look” as well. That allowed me to get a head start on packing, and we didn’t have to kennel our dogs again. We spent our evenings online together, making lists of homes that we wanted to look at. Our agent was awesome and worked really hard to find a good fit for us. One weekend, we put another offer in and, again, lost to a higher offer. While hubby drove home, I went online once again to put together the next list of homes. Stress was at the max.
The boys were acting out, reacting to the unsettled mood of the house, familiar things packed up, moving boxes everywhere, the loss of their stability and the only home they had ever known. We suspended our therapy schedule. I just didn’t have time to make that trip and pack up our home.
When hubby was home, we reviewed the list of homes, talked about others he had looked at, and we came across a home that we hadn’t seen– fresh on the market. It was the right price, the right location, and the right size. We called our agent and the next day she arranged a video tour for us. We love it and put an offer in without seeing the house physically in person. Scary! The sellers accepted our offer; even more scary! What are we doing? Are we crazy?
Hubby went down that weekend and walked through the house for the first time while the mandatory property inspection was going on. Everything was good, only a few minor issues. Finally, we had a home to move in to. Everything seemed to be working out. And it did!
The house is wonderful, and we are slowly settling in. The boys have their own bedrooms, which makes giving them space on rougher days so much easier. The house is carpeted and has regular, flat ceilings (verses our previous hardwood floors and vaulted ceilings) so the noise level is much lower and easier on everyone. Everything we need is within about a 30-minute drive.
We already have established ourselves with a wonderful pediatrician and in the past month set up appointments to start speech, occupational and physical therapies again. We were able to get C in to an optometrist that also does vision therapy, for a second opinion. It turns out that, not only does C have Binocular Convergence Insufficiency but, he also has double vision. The doctor said that his condition is moderate to severe, and he definitely needs vision therapy. This was an a-ha moment because we are still struggling with getting C to engage in school work. If he sees double words, double lines to write on, and so on, it’s no wonder that he hates school. So, one more therapy is added to our soon-to-be weekly schedule. Just another plus to living in our new town.
The job situation is still in flux and the hubs has been commuting back to our old town and staying with family during the week, which is hard on him and the family, and makes settling in more challenging. We still have routines to establish, things here and there to tweak, and personal touches on the house. Needless to say, these two months have flown by in chaos but, we survived and already have a good feeling about the next chapter.