When the weather is nice, we usually find my 9-year-old son Lawson by looking for the stack of bikes thrown down in his friends’ driveways down the street or listening for the sound of a bouncing basketball in the cul de sac. That’s exactly what we wanted to find in a neighborhood when we moved to Windstone eight years ago. But it isn’t the reason we moved here.  

My husband and I met working at a television station Knoxville. Our careers took us across the country and we lived at the beach in North Carolina and in upstate New York. While it can be exciting, a career in TV news is very different from what most people imagine. A few years later, my husband Charlie traded in the unstable schedule for something that would be better fit to support the family we knew we wanted to have. He’s now been with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee in marketing for almost 10 years. 

With kids in mind, we moved back to Tennessee in 2008. Charlie grew up in Chattanooga. At the time, my family still lived in Knoxville. Three years later, Lila came along and changed our world in so many ways. Add our boys, Lawson and Avett, to the mix and you get what we sometimes refer to as “beautiful chaos.” We had heard great things about Westview Elementary’s inclusive education opportunities from those in special needs circles. Both my oldest, Lila, who just turned 13, and my youngest, Avett, who is six, have Down syndrome. 

Those who live in Lake Haven have probably seen us loading Avett up on his bus for kindergarten, and may have had to wait while he got the three hugs he “requires” at every morning pickup. (We thank you for that!!!) We believe that an inclusive education, learning beside their friends in a regular education classroom as much as possible, is so important for Lila and Avett. And Westview, at almost every turn, offered that when Lila started kindergarten.  Now in Middle school, Lila is thriving at Chattanooga Christian School where she is cheering on the sidelines at middle school basketball games.  

So while our kids brought us here, the friendships we have formed at the pool over the summer or watching football at our neighbors’ homes, is what makes us so grateful for this special place. Being able to walk to the pool, the grill, or the front pond to throw football makes this neighborhood a fit for our family. Pulling in my driveway after anchoring the evening news and seeing Lawson and his friends shooting on our basketball goal with our goldendoodle Wiley watching from the front porch, is a memory I know I will miss when this crazy stage of life slows down one day. And while we’ll never make it into the running for yard of the month, we so appreciate how our community has embraced us and welcomed us home.

Avett is 6-years-old and loves reading Pete the Cat and Cat in the Hat with Mom and Dad. He has a signature dance move and is learning to use assistive speech device.