January 24, 2019
With as much as we loved our condo, I never thought we would ever consider selling it and moving. Little did I know, my plans needed to change to match God’s.
In the midst of travels and hospital stays during the last half of 2018, we learned so much about Thad’s brain injury and how to best help him. His new neurologist is simply amazing and I will be forever grateful he walked into Thad’s ER visit in July 2018 – completely life changing. He ran tests and asked questions no one had in the 2 years since his accident!
One of the tests was an ambulatory EEG that showed some weird flashes (yes there is a medical term the doctor used) that were not seizures – so Dr Dike referred us to another specialist who wanted to see the same tests in a very controlled hospital setting. Coming home from a trip to the results we got was definitely not expected.
We found out the weird flashes were actually some variation of a startle response … at the condo he averages 2 an hour every hour of every day and so his brain is always on high alert. At the hospital it happened once and it was when someone dropped a tray outside of his room. It was a first for the doctor to tell a patient moving was the best solution if we couldn’t better sound proof.
In looking into soundproofing – costs started in the $50k range with no guarantees. Obviously – the house hunt began with the number one item on the list being QUIET! Our real estate agent gave us some areas to go look and some ideas to ponder as I began the process of making a huge decision for us.
Honestly – that was the scariest part of it all … I felt like I had to make the decision mostly on my own and it had to be right for Thad’s health as well as for us financially. Thad was able to give input on what he liked, but his brain can no longer process all the moving parts or physically understand the pros and cons of all of it. The pressure was intense – and thank you Jesus for an incredible agent, the best mortgage guy for us on the plane, and a financial planner who were all willing to jump into this mess with me!
After many neighborhoods – and every corner of the DFW metroplex, we decided on an active adults community. Building from scratch would give us time to sell and figure out details, and hopefully smoothly settle in vs the frantic need to get it all done in a couple weeks – though I know that will still happen at some level because well – its a move! We are heading to Frisco Lakes, a Del Webb subdivision. This is our back patio today and if all goes according to plan, we will get to move in sometime in May.
What we’ve learned in the past few months is that home is actually inside us. It is where we are together with the boys. Its more than walls, sheetrock and a location. It is the love, togetherness and support that we offer each other. Where we bond, huddle, love and serve each other whatever that needs to look like on any given day. So while we say goodbye to all of the amazing things God did in and through the condo, we look forward to everything that will happen at our new home. Who knows – maybe this patio will be a huge part of it. We can’t wait to see!
