Preparing for the Move

Once the decision to move was made there was much work to do.  Our first choice would be; where do we go?  This was not difficult.  Except for the experience we had with the
city bureaucrats, we both loved Richmond and considered it our home.  We knew going back to the City of Richmond was not an option.  The three outlying counties all had fairly good reputations when it came to school systems.  We felt Chesterfield was growing too quickly, so that narrowed it down to Henrico and Hanover.  Dennis and I made a couple of visits to tour schools in both counties and while Henrico’s programs were impressive we decided on Hanover.  Western Hanover County was still quite rural and we had always wanted to buy property with a lot of land.  Because there wasn’t a huge population, the
school administrators seemed to be more accommodating when we discussed Ben’s special needs as well as our hopes for him.

Once we found where we wanted to be, the next hurdle was the all-important question;
how will we support our family?  This problem was surprisingly easy to overcome.  A
friend of ours, who also happened to be one of Dennis’ former bosses, had started his own business in 1991.  When Dennis told him we were planning to return to Richmond our friend made room for him on his sales team.  He also gave me some contract work during my ensuing job search.

The next task we needed to complete was to get Ben’s records in order.  That meant putting in place a signed IEP.  We called the county to schedule another meeting and also mentioned that this would be a formality since we would soon be leaving Charleston.   You can bet that there was a party that evening at the Taj Mahal,
because Dennis and I had become major thorns in the sides of the school administrators.  Our next IEP meeting was remarkably easy due to the fact that they knew it would not be them who had to administer the plan.

The transition for me was going to be a little more difficult.  I was not in a place where I felt I could give short notice to my employer.  We decided to put our house on the market and I would stay with Ben in Charleston for a few months while I helped to find and train a replacement.  Dennis would head to Richmond to work and search for a house.  The problem with our plan was the timing.  A few months before our decision to leave, the government’s Base Realignment Commission had named Charleston’s naval base as one that would be closed.  The market had been flooded with houses, not to mention the mini-recession that resulted.  Our house sat on the market for several months until after I left we actually had to rent it.  That posed an additional challenge when the house finally did sell…..but it did….eventually; and the renters left….eventually

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