We Are Moving!!

I can't tell you what a relief it is to share this. Right after Jackie's evaluation last month, we also found out that our long term plans were changing. For the last few years, we had planned on transferring to the Dublin, Ireland office with the company the Husband works for. This was something I was pushing for and he liked the idea too. Knowing last year that we would need services for Jackie if we ended up overseas, we did a lot of research on what was available and what offices matched up with what The Husband does. We landed on Dublin. The hope was to go around October of this year. Then COVID happened. Sadly, Ireland wasn't an option anymore. We were really looking forward to moving overseas and having a new experience. So this was a tough pill to swallow.

After Jackie's evaluation, we realized that she needed more services than she was receiving, which wasn't a huge surprise. But we felt like a lot of the things Kennedy Krieger recognized as issues were totally missed by the county and Jackie's school here. So we decided to start looking around for something else.

And we found it. A preschool that is attached to a developmental pediatric office. This preschool is a mix of special needs kids and "typical" kids, which is ideal. In addition, they offer therapy in the classroom, so the child's day isn't disturbed by leaving for therapy appointments. That means Jackie can have speech, OT, ABA and eating therapy all during the day at school!

There is a catch. This facility is in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Not exactly close to us. We wanted to make a change by the end of 2020, even with Ireland falling through, so this ended up being kind of a God send. Two weeks ago, I went to Chattanooga to house hunt. Paris, Jackie, Emma and Jordan all came too!

We found a house that I loved. But we wanted to wait to see what The Husband's job situation would be and if we could even get Jackie into this preschool. I came home and a few days later our real estate agent called to tell me that despite all advise, the owner of the house had leased it to someone. We only wanted a few more days! I was crushed. But a few hours later we got a call saying that the owners would be willing to break the lease they had just signed if we brought them a "reasonable" offer. Turns out that is a relative term and means nothing. Because we brought them a good offer and they rejected. I was crushed, for the second time in less than 12 hours.

It just so happened that a bigger house, four doors down, was for sale by the builder. The same builder of the other house. It was double the space of our current apartment. So we decided to see if we could get it. We put in an offer and waited. When we put the offer in on the first house, I felt like I was going to throw up. With the second house, I was so much more at peace. Turns out, it's because that was our house! The next day, we found out the builder accepted the offer! We close on June 30 (insert panic emoji) and will move in the weekend of July 4th.

The last thing we needed to fall into place was the Husband's job. He has been working remotely since COVID started but we wanted to make sure that would be ok from another state. We found out yesterday that it's not a problem!

Now it's time to move. We have about a month to get everything ready to go and down to Chattanooga. This is really why I have been so MIA the last few weeks. I have been so consumed with how fast everything has been happening and I wanted to really focus on getting everything lined up. I can't tell you how excited we are about this new chapter and what is in store for Jackie and our family!