Moving On

Life's been a little crazy around here these last few months.  I have a lot to post and not much time, but I will get to it.  I've been doing a little reflecting today as I have been packing and cleaning our house.  You see, we are selling our house.  It's a bittersweet thing for me.  I am excited for the new adventure, but we have loved our first home (even with its quirks and all the shortcuts the previous owners used), and it is hard to let go.  However, Kai is growing to the point where we need a place that is more disability friendly...where we don't have to carry him up and down the stairs, and where his wheelchair has a place (currently sitting in our garage).  He is nearly 50 pounds, which is the limit the nurses can lift on their own for liability reasons.  What that means is that I am hauling him up and down the stairs for school (and when we go out).  I nearly threw out my back again a couple weeks ago...it was bad enough that I had a hard time when I wasn't in constant motion.  Luckily, it wasn't bad enough to keep me down.

So, for the last few months we have been working on getting this house sell-ready.  We put in a closet in the downstairs bedroom, we fixed a tile that had popped up in the entryway, painted, sanded, mudded, caulked, tried to fix a pipe but ended up having to have a plumber come in, packed, dejunked, and more.  It's been crazy.  From the time I get up until I drop, I've been working on the house (and taking care of kids and the normal stuff).  I'm at the point where I am so ready to be done...and there still seems to be so much more to do.

 We have thought this way and that on how to keep our current home and make the modifications necessary for Kai, but in the end it boils down to the fact that we just need a home with a different layout.  Our hallways and doorways are too narrow, so even if we were to move him into Zuri's room upstairs, we would still have the hallway issue, and then he would be secluded away from the family, which is the main reason we have him in the family room downstairs.  If we were to put him in the living room upstairs, he would take up the entire room (we tried that when we first bought the house) and then we wouldn't have anywhere to be upstairs.  Not only that, but the nurses would have to be uber quiet during the night so they don't wake us up.  Our stairway is too narrow to accommodate a lift, and even though we have a walk-out basement, the grade between the front and the back is too steep to safely navigate his wheelchair.

So, the time has come to sell our home.  We love having the park right behind us...that is going to be the hardest part about leaving.  We also love our neighborhood and our neighbors.  Our location is ideal, being close to a major highway and shopping centers, yet tucked away so it doesn't feel like we are.  We see wildlife (I saw a skunk just the other morning as I was letting the dog out--luckily she listened when I called for her to come back to me, otherwise we might have had another stinky dog).  We watch amazing sunsets while eating dinner.

We have settled into this home and have loved it.  After moving so much in the beginning of our marriage, it has been nice to have been in one place for a while.  However, I am excited for the new adventure our next place will bring.  Once we sell our home, we will stay with my grandparents until we find (or build) a suitable home.

For now, posts may be sparse, but they will come.  Until then, I say goodnight.