It has been more than 18 months since we posted a new update here. In the 
meantime there have been too many changes to list but some of the most influential positive events are moving to College Park
to live in a sorority house, Aaron starting a new job at The Washington Center, finding out we were going to be having our first child, the many events in celebration and preparation for having our first child, rushing to the hospital at 2 AM on July 23rd, 2016 because Molly was ready to arrive. Through all of this we’ve gotten to know each other better and continue to develop our relationship as a married couple and now as parents.
We’re over joyed by Molly and getting to see her grow day by day and learn how to be the best parents we can be as we go. Her little giggles and smiles bring us so much delight that it’s hard to describe.
Our New House!
After Molly’s arrival, we knew that we wouldn’t be able to continue to live with the women of Phi Sigma Sigma beyond Molly’s first birthday so we started searching for houses. We looked throughout Hyattsville, Riverdale, College Park, and Berwyn Heights searching for a nice blend of contemporary finishes and character.
The first house we visited was built in Hyattsville in about 1903 and the pictures online were amazing. The hard wood floors looked great and the kitchen looked beautifully finished. And then we toured the house and discovered so many things that the pictures could hide. Like sloping floors and poorly installed windows and an aging roof. When we were finished we were basically running away from that house. We carried on and tried to find a compromise of styles through the Victorians and Craftsmen and Cape Cods and Ramblers that are prevalent in Maryland’s Prince George’s County.
We were constantly scouring Redfin for open houses and new listings in our desired neighborhoods. We found several that could work but just felt like we weren’t getting enough of what we really wanted. We finally saw a listing come open in College Park that we both liked and asked for a tour of the property hours after the listing went live. During the tour we were impressed by the details in the home, the outdoor space, the finished basement, how bright the
house was, and the quiet neighborhood. We immediately knew it was a contender and that the house checked off most of the boxes for both of us. We talked about the house throughout the week and daydreamed about decorating, the purposes of the different rooms, and how we could set it up for our family.
We knew we had to pursue this house. We went to the open house just to walk through the house one last time and get an idea of how competitive the listing was so we could plan our offer. We spoke to our real estate agent, Patrick Thelwell, about the offer process and what we needed to do to be competitive since there were going to be multiple offers. We wrote a letter to the sellers, made sure our mortgage broker, Rob Mercer from First Home Mortgage, to make sure we were all set for the offer, and then held our breath for a day. Then Patrick called us back the next day to tell us we got the house!
One of the programs that really helped us get the house is the College Park City-University Partnership Homeownership program. We were even interviewed about our experience working with the program! We highly recommend it for anyone who meets the qualifications and wants to buy a house in College Park, MD.
After hearing our offer was accepted, we continued day dreaming about what would make the house our home and finally closed on December 5th. And now we’re in the process of buying furniture and DIY home projects. Including replacing the tile floor in the basement with a new wood-look tile to help the basement look a little warmer and coordinate with the hardwood floors in the rest of the house. We’re looking forward to the process of making the house our home because we’ve been living on campus in some form or another for a long time! We will keep this space up to date with some of our projects as we complete them.
Hospital
On December 6th 2016, just a day after closing on our house, we had to take Molly into the hospital for Respiratory Syncytial Virus which caused bronchiolitis and partial respiratory failure. After a few different interventions the doctors had to intubate Molly in order to support her lungs through the illness. She was intubated for about 8 days and then the tube was removed for about 48 hours. But Molly wasn’t ready yet and had to be reintubated. She then continued her recovery slowly and was off all breathing support by the end of December. All in all we spent 29 days in the hospital at Children’s National Hospital and are very thankful that Molly is home now due to the excellent care Molly received from the nurses and doctors and technicians. We’re also so appreciative of the family and friends who came to visit us and support us through the stressful and long process of making sure Molly gets 100% better.
Hired
While in the hospital Aaron found out he was being offered a new job at the University of Maryland working as the Coordinator for Student Leadership 
Development in Resident Life. He will be working with the UMD Residence Hall Association, the Jim Henson chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary, coordinating the class for Resident Assistants, and pursuing new opportunities for residential student leadership development. He’s very excited to be back on a college campus and working with the kinds of student leadership groups that helped him grow so much while he was in college. He’s also sad to be leaving behind great colleagues at The Washington Center which was a great professional home for him for a little over a year.