Monday, December 22 2008 10:05 Written by Joeprah

Mady’s milestones came slower than Bella’s and the comparisons were hard to avoid as a parent. Bella had walked at 9 months—Madeleine at 13. Bella started talking at 9 months—Madeleine 12. We found ourselves constantly wondering if Mady was ‘ok’ or if she was developing too slowly. I mean you just never think as a parent, you know what—this kid is average, and that’s just how Mady developed. At around the point she turned two, we began looking to move.

The area we lived in, itself, was a decent wholesome neighborhood, but Baltimore city was quickly growing around it, and with the city came the crime. One afternoon, when I was working and my father was watching Madeleine we were robbed. The thieves stole two mountain bikes, one from our garage and one that was chained to our fence. One of the thieves was working his way to our house when my father noticed him and fortunately he took flight with one of the bikes. It was a wakeup call. We started searching for a neighborhood with good schools descent affordable housing and low crime rates. It took us a few months but we found the home and neighborhood for us in a small town in Maryland called Havre de Grace. Havre de Grace is a family-oriented, town where no matter where you go you bump into someone you know. I had worked on some construction projects in Havre de Grace so I had a good feel for the area and when we saw a new development go up we excited to see what they had to offer. The model home was perfect. It had all that we needed and after scouring resales for over two months we knew we had found the home for us. It was a four bedroom, two car garage colonial and it had just enough yard to keep our family happy. The only catch, our townhouse sold in one day.

We had to move in with a friend for the balance of the summer until our home was finished and doing so would give us time to save the money we needed for the down payment. So, after two moves over the course of that summer we finally settled in to our new home and started thinking about having our third child.

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