0:07

There was a moment in 2017 that

0:10

showed Ling Pai that the disease that

0:12

was destroying her sight wasn't

0:14

the thing that put her life at risk. Instead,

0:20

out there on the Pacific Ocean that day, paddling

0:23

her surfboard far from shore, Ling

0:26

finally saw the problem. It

0:29

was her stubborn independence, her

0:32

unwillingness to rely on others.

0:39

I went surfing with some friends, some

0:41

newer friends, and I didn't

0:44

explain to anybody that I couldn't see very

0:46

well and they needed to watch out for me.

0:48

And I jumped in

0:50

the ocean and paddled right ahead

0:53

of everybody. I

0:56

didn't know there was a rip current. Even

0:59

though there was a sign on the beach, I obviously didn't

1:01

see it. They didn't see it.

1:06

Everybody was paddling out. They

1:09

didn't actually make it very far because

1:11

the waves were too strong and they gave up. And

1:14

I just kept paddling.

1:15

I

1:17

just kept paddling and paddling and paddling.

1:21

I started getting seasick because

1:24

it was getting picked up by a wave and

1:26

then dropping down and getting picked

1:29

up and dropped down. And

1:32

I looked back and I could see land,

1:35

but it was very, very far away.

1:41

To her failing eyes, the beach

1:44

was little more than a fuzzy blur, but

1:47

it was enough to see that she was much farther

1:49

out than she should be. And

1:52

she was completely alone.

1:57

And I thought, How

2:01

did I get here? This is how

2:04

do I, what just happened,

2:06

I thought. I was a bit confused, but

2:08

then I thought, okay, I'm gonna turn

2:11

around and just paddle back and

2:14

then I'll figure it out.

2:18

And I ended up getting caught against

2:21

this rocky cliff in the waves.

2:23

Like I, not asking for proper help almost

2:26

cost me my life. This

2:32

is Home Made, an original podcast

2:33

by Rocket Mortgage

2:36

about the meaning of homes and what

2:39

we can learn about ourselves in them. I'm

2:41

Stephanie Fu. In this episode, home

2:43

is where the help is.

2:45

Hello listeners of Home Made. Find out how

2:47

you could get up to $2,000 off home buying

2:50

costs from Rocket Mortgage. Hear

2:53

more at the end of the episode.

2:56

The scenery from the new apartment was breathtaking,

2:59

even from the bathroom window.

3:03

It's just so beautiful.

3:06

I'm so happy to be here.

3:08

I'm so happy to be here. I'm

3:10

so

3:10

happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here.

3:15

It's just this beautiful

3:17

skyline of downtown Vancouver

3:20

and then the mountains in the back and

3:23

the beautiful water as well. I

3:27

remember thinking, oh my God, everything is just

3:29

so big and vast and open.

3:32

Ling was 13. She'd just moved

3:35

into her new Vancouver apartment with her mom and her

3:37

sister. They'd immigrated to Canada

3:39

a little over a year earlier, but mom

3:41

had gone back to Taiwan for work. Now

3:44

she was back for good,

3:45

and they finally had a place of their own.

3:50

That first day was just me

3:52

and my mom. I remember her

3:54

laying out newspapers and the two

3:56

of us sat on the floor and ate ham and

3:58

cheese.

3:59

and pickle sandwiches on that

4:02

kitchen floor. And I just remember

4:05

being so happy. It

4:09

just felt like

4:12

a really safe and beautiful space.

4:16

In 1998, when she was 14,

4:21

Ling

4:23

started wearing contact lenses. She

4:26

got an eye infection, so her mom took her to

4:28

an eye clinic. During the exam,

4:31

the doctor handed her a book and

4:33

asked her to read out the numbers she could see.

4:37

I couldn't see any of the

4:39

numbers. And he just thought,

4:41

huh.

4:44

And he said to my mom, did you

4:46

know that she's colorblind? And

4:48

she said, no. That's when

4:50

Ling's mom told the doctor she'd been having

4:53

trouble with her eyes. She said

4:55

she was going through a difficult divorce. And because

4:57

she cried so much, it caused her vision to

4:59

blur. And he said, oh, I don't think that's what

5:01

it is, but well, we

5:04

should get you guys checked out. And it

5:07

turned out that my mom has

5:10

dominant optic atrophy, and I

5:12

have dominant optic atrophy. It's a genetic

5:14

disease that runs in the family.

5:18

The doctor explained that there was no

5:20

cure

5:21

and no treatment. So

5:24

my eyesight will get worse as

5:27

I get older, and I will

5:29

probably go blind one day, but

5:33

they don't know when. The

5:36

diagnosis felt surreal, and

5:38

the doctor said she had to come back for eye exams every

5:41

year, even though nothing

5:43

could be done. Were

5:45

you scared? I

5:47

was very scared, and I didn't

5:50

want to go to those appointments. I

5:53

just,

5:54

I remember not

5:56

wanting to think about it all year. And

6:00

then when it came time for

6:02

the appointment, I would be very

6:04

upset during that week. And

6:08

I would hide in my room and

6:10

cry because I didn't

6:12

want to talk to my mom about it. I

6:14

didn't want to talk to my sister about it.

6:17

She figured her mom was already dealing with

6:19

enough stress. So why add one

6:21

more thing? I felt like

6:23

my mom probably felt somehow

6:26

guilty about passing on the gene

6:28

to me. And I didn't want her to feel bad. So

6:32

I really didn't communicate with my family

6:34

about how I felt.

6:36

And it's like, I've got it. I have

6:38

this handled. I can do this. Everything's

6:41

fine.

6:45

Ling's independent streak kicked

6:47

in when she first arrived in Canada.

6:50

She can still picture the day when she decided she

6:52

would never depend on others for anything.

6:59

I was in grade six when we first moved to Canada.

7:02

And we were living with my aunt.

7:05

And I remember not

7:08

really being able to speak English at the time.

7:11

Ling struggled to understand her English-speaking

7:13

teachers in school. But her friend

7:15

was bilingual. And on this day, she

7:18

helped by whispering the teacher's lesson in Mandarin.

7:20

And this girl

7:22

turned around and she said, shut

7:25

up. Speak English.

7:28

And the girl that was translating for me said,

7:30

well, she doesn't speak English. That's why I'm trying to help

7:33

her. And the girl said, if you

7:35

can't speak English, then don't speak at all.

7:38

It was interesting because I didn't

7:40

understand English, but I understood

7:43

all of that. And I felt

7:45

like I don't want to be treated

7:47

this way because I just

7:49

can't do something. You

7:52

didn't want to be seen as less than. Exactly.

7:56

So Ling said to herself, I'm

7:59

going to learn English. as fast as I can.

8:02

I will do this on my own. And

8:04

by the time I finished grade eight, I

8:06

was completely out of the English

8:09

learning programs and I was in regular classes.

8:11

Wow. It was fast.

8:15

She became a bit of a perfectionist

8:17

about it. Ling wanted to prove

8:20

to her mom that the sacrifice of immigration

8:22

was worth it. Absolutely. I

8:25

just, I didn't want to disappoint

8:27

her. I didn't want to disappoint her. I

8:29

still don't want to disappoint her.

8:33

So later, when 14 year old

8:35

Ling was told that her eyes would fail her, she

8:38

decided

8:38

she would handle this on her own.

8:40

She wouldn't let this disease define her.

8:43

Like if I'm not going to

8:45

be able to see one day, then I'm going

8:47

to get out and see

8:49

and do things and have fun and just

8:52

really enjoy my eyesight

8:54

while I

8:56

have it.

8:59

From that point on, Ling spent as much

9:02

time outdoors as she could. She'd go camping,

9:04

hiking, took up snowboarding. She

9:06

shredded the slopes most winter weekends. She

9:09

kept at it through university and graduated

9:11

with a degree in kinesiology.

9:14

Her eyesight worsened a bit, but so far

9:16

it was manageable. And it wasn't

9:18

something she talked about. The few

9:21

times when she did tell other people about her disease,

9:23

she hated how they would react. They

9:26

look at me like, oh my gosh, I'm

9:28

so sorry. Like this is terrible for

9:30

you. She was like, yeah,

9:33

thanks. She didn't want to be

9:36

treated differently, didn't want anyone's pity,

9:38

and she didn't want their help. What

9:41

she did want was to move beyond

9:43

life in Vancouver. I

9:47

couldn't grow up fast enough. I wanted

9:49

to be independent.

9:53

In her mid 20s, Ling grabbed

9:55

her boyfriend and headed east. She

9:57

bought a house in rural Nova Scotia on the

9:59

other side.

9:59

other side of the country.

10:02

It's a very simple red house with

10:05

big cathedral windows overlooking

10:08

the Gasparrow Valley with a big

10:10

open deck.

10:12

It was three bedrooms, two

10:14

baths, open kitchen,

10:17

living concept, fireplace.

10:20

It was a beautiful home. A

10:22

beautiful home.

10:24

A symbol leveling, striking out on

10:26

her own.

10:27

It was me wanting

10:29

to show that I've at you know age 27

10:33

I've accomplished something.

10:35

I've established a career.

10:37

I've gotten my life together

10:39

so well that I hate look

10:42

I'm setting myself up for the rest of my life

10:44

here.

10:45

We had this idea

10:47

that we might be married one day

10:50

in that house that I bought could

10:52

be our forever home. And

10:54

though her eyes continue to worsen she

10:56

was confident and tried to look past the problem

10:59

as always. She

11:03

and her boyfriend booked a vacation to Puerto Rico

11:05

and Ling took her first surfing lesson.

11:10

Of course she didn't tell the surf instructor

11:12

about her vision. She'd handle it. It's

11:15

just water and it's okay if I paddle

11:18

for the wrong wave. It's okay if the wave hits

11:20

me and I'm underwater for a little bit. I'm attached

11:23

to this flotation device.

11:25

I will surface. Like every

11:28

surfer Ling remembers the thrill of catching

11:30

her first wave.

11:35

Everybody's hooting and yelling

11:37

and you just get this adrenaline you get this high

11:40

when you catch your first wave and

11:42

it just felt really natural to me

11:44

when I popped up and rode that wave

11:46

into the beach. And I just remember

11:49

being so happy and thinking

11:52

I want to do more of this.

11:53

She was hooked.

11:56

Out on the water, Ling

11:58

felt free. I just felt really

12:00

relaxing on the water. I didn't have to think

12:03

about my anxiety

12:05

is about my eyesight, my anxiety is

12:07

about work. I didn't have to think about

12:09

any of that.

12:13

But as they returned home to Nova Scotia,

12:16

the reality of her condition set in quickly.

12:19

Her vision suddenly got much worse. More

12:23

than ever, she depended on her boyfriend to help

12:25

her get around.

12:26

And that was really tough, because it was the first

12:28

time I felt like I

12:30

had lost

12:32

my independence.

12:33

I wasn't able to just go out and

12:35

do things without asking somebody.

12:38

You were not good

12:41

at relying on people, right?

12:43

Not at all. Terrible at it.

12:46

Don't like relying on people. She

12:48

hid her disease from everyone around her. If

12:51

she made plans to go out to eat, she would study

12:53

the restaurant menu ahead of time, so she didn't

12:55

have to struggle in public. She often

12:58

wore all white because she knew

13:00

her clothes would match. She had all

13:02

these secret ways of coping.

13:05

Like pretending to see when

13:07

somebody showed me something, just smiling and

13:09

nodding like, oh, that's really cool. Great.

13:12

Uh-huh. Yeah. OK.

13:14

But things were getting harder to do. She'd

13:17

go trail running and started to trip and fall

13:20

a lot. I couldn't tell

13:22

if there were shadows or if there were rocks

13:25

and what the surface was like because

13:27

I had no depth perception. And

13:30

I was thinking, oh, I

13:32

guess I probably shouldn't be running on my own

13:34

anymore or hiking on my own

13:36

because I'll probably get lost

13:40

or hurt myself. Ling

13:42

wasn't afraid when this happened. She

13:44

was angry. Great. Here's

13:47

another thing, you know? I'm losing another thing.

13:49

So did you see your blindness

13:52

as like a flaw? I

13:54

totally did. Absolutely. I did.

13:57

I thought it was this dark mark on

13:59

me.

13:59

and I just wanted to make sure

14:02

that I do

14:05

so well at everything else

14:08

that nobody would notice it. And

14:10

it would be okay. It wouldn't count. I

14:13

could hide it if I can just

14:15

outshine it somehow.

14:18

But

14:18

she could no longer ignore her disease.

14:21

They were living in such a rural area with

14:23

really crappy public transportation, and

14:26

she had to rely on her partner to take her everywhere.

14:29

She began to resent him for it.

14:31

I was upset more with myself

14:34

than anybody else, but

14:36

I took that out on him a lot.

14:39

So it could be something as simple

14:41

as, hey, you said you would pick me up at 4.30.

14:45

It's 5 o'clock. I had to wait for you for half an

14:47

hour, and I would just be so

14:50

angry.

14:51

Her frustrations kept building, and then

14:54

her relationship ended. Living

14:56

in Nova Scotia without a partner wouldn't

14:59

work. She

15:02

needed to clear her head, so she went for her weekly

15:04

swim at the local university pool.

15:08

I had a panic attack. I

15:11

didn't know what was happening at the time, but

15:14

I felt like I was having chest pain. I couldn't

15:17

breathe. I had the

15:19

sense of,

15:20

I just got to get out of here. Whatever that's

15:23

happening here is not good. I need to

15:25

just get out of here. I'm done.

15:27

I

15:28

need to go.

15:31

She'd go back to Vancouver, back

15:34

to the apartment with her mom and her sister. I

15:37

remember leaving and thinking, I'm so

15:39

sad because I know I won't be back in this house

15:41

again. This is the last time I'll be in this

15:44

home, even though it's my home.

15:54

The scenery from the bathroom window had

15:56

changed.

15:59

I don't see the building. as well anymore. I can

16:01

sort of still see the outlines of the mountains

16:03

in the back, but things just get a little

16:06

bit more blurry. It

16:08

was tough finding herself living in mom's

16:10

apartment again. Sleeping in the same

16:12

bedroom her 14-year-old self ran to

16:15

after her initial diagnosis.

16:17

Now, she was 29 years old.

16:21

Both Ling and her mother had the same disease, but

16:23

her mom's condition had advanced more slowly.

16:26

At this point, Ling's vision was worse than

16:28

hers. It was fitting

16:30

that this was where home was again, because

16:33

it was time for another annual eye exam,

16:36

that yearly ritual she hated. The

16:39

doctor did her tests and told

16:41

her what she saw.

16:43

She said,

16:44

your eyes have gotten bad enough

16:46

that I'm going

16:48

to declare you as legally blind.

16:51

That is your current disability

16:53

status.

16:55

Legally blind. The

16:58

moment Ling had dreaded for so long

17:00

had finally come. And I

17:03

remember coming

17:05

home from that appointment and

17:07

my mom said, how did it go? And

17:10

I said, well, I'm legally

17:12

blind. I think she was

17:14

sad, but to me, I took that

17:16

as she was disappointed in me somehow.

17:19

She was upset. And I just thought,

17:21

oh, I can't help it. My eyes are

17:23

getting worse, mom. There's nothing we can do about it.

17:26

So it was just a lot to

17:28

deal with at the time. My eyes

17:30

moving back home with my mom and sister,

17:33

ending a relationship.

17:35

It was a lot.

17:37

And being in that apartment didn't comfort

17:39

her like it did when she was a girl.

17:43

It's hard to say this

17:46

because my mom meant well.

17:49

She just wanted to take care of me,

17:52

but I felt

17:54

trapped back

17:56

into that apartment. I thought

17:59

I had made the big. because I had a different

18:01

sense of independence back

18:03

in Nova Scotia in my own home. And

18:06

all I wanted to do was get out and

18:08

go get a place of my own and go through

18:10

the emotions and the turmoil that

18:13

I was going through. I just wanted space.

18:17

MUSIC

18:23

Within three months, she'd moved into her

18:25

own place. It was not a dream apartment.

18:27

It was just a place to rest my head. It

18:30

had paper-thin walls. The

18:33

building was drooping to one side. So

18:36

if you roll the tennis ball or any sort of ball, it

18:38

would roll to one side of the apartment.

18:41

It was exactly what I was going through. You know,

18:43

things were starting to line up, but

18:46

on the inside, I was a little bit broken and

18:49

work in progress. Life

18:51

in Vancouver also felt unbalanced. There

18:54

were things her vision would no longer let her do, like

18:56

snowboarding. Yet over

18:58

time, she found clarity

19:01

in her official disability status.

19:04

Getting the diagnosis of being

19:07

legally blind at

19:09

almost 30 set me free

19:12

because it was something that I

19:14

couldn't really ignore or hide anymore.

19:17

I'm like, I'm blind. I'm sorry. I

19:20

can finally be honest and just say,

19:22

I can't see.

19:24

She still didn't tell everyone she met. She

19:26

remained stubborn. But being

19:28

officially disabled actually wound up

19:31

opening more doors than it closed. It

19:33

gave her access to resources for

19:35

blind people that she couldn't get before. Small

19:38

things like a public transit pass and

19:40

badass things like an adaptive ski

19:42

program at her local resort.

19:45

This was perfect for Ling, an

19:47

opportunity to become an even bigger

19:49

risk taker. And I thought, even

19:52

if I'm bad at it, every time

19:55

I go up and try, I will

19:57

be a little bit better than the

19:59

time before.

20:00

getting better at something is always better

20:03

than being reminded that you're

20:05

not doing as well,

20:07

right? The

20:10

ski program assigned two guides to keep

20:12

her safe on the mountain. One skied in

20:14

front of her to show her which way to go. One skied

20:17

behind her to block anyone from sliding

20:19

into her.

20:19

And

20:21

I wore this bright orange vest that

20:24

said blind skier on it. And

20:26

that was probably the

20:29

first time I felt

20:32

like I didn't have to be embarrassed to

20:35

tell people that I can't see.

20:39

It was also one of the rare times in her

20:41

life when she had to accept help from

20:43

strangers. Yeah, it

20:45

was easy for me to accept that

20:48

help because it's a sport

20:50

that I'm learning. And that

20:52

probably helped with

20:55

everything else in my life, even though I didn't think about

20:57

it at the time.

21:02

Her legal

21:02

blindness helped Ling stop hiding

21:04

from her disease. Adaptive

21:06

skiing showed her that it was okay to

21:08

depend on others sometimes. But

21:11

a lifetime of learned behavior doesn't

21:13

change after a couple days on the slopes.

21:16

It took that wild day on the ocean

21:18

to push her to truly accept

21:20

herself.

21:25

Can you give me a sense of what you see

21:27

when you are surfing? So

21:30

when I look out into the

21:33

ocean, I can't

21:35

really see the waves coming until

21:38

it's about maybe

21:41

five seconds away, maybe three seconds away.

21:45

Unless they're really, really big

21:47

waves, then I can see a dark line

21:49

coming towards me. I

21:51

do see in contrast, but that's really about it.

21:55

Ling had kept up with surfing since that first

21:58

trip to Puerto Rico. in

22:00

Nova Scotia. She'd travel to surf

22:02

camps whenever she could. Costa Rica,

22:04

Nicaragua, Mexico, Hawaii,

22:07

but she was still very much a novice.

22:11

In April 2017, she traveled

22:13

to Tofino, British Columbia, a

22:15

town considered to be Canada's surfing capital.

22:18

And when she paddled out ahead of some new friends she'd

22:20

made, she didn't see them turning back

22:22

because the waves were too strong.

22:25

And that's how she ended up alone, too far

22:27

from shore, sizing up a

22:29

rocky cliff as her only chance of survival.

22:34

The wave is pushing me against this rocky

22:36

cliff. And I thought,

22:38

okay, I can, on strap,

22:41

get rid of this board and climb

22:43

onto these rocks.

22:44

And

22:46

then the next wave came and hit 10

22:49

feet up this rocky cliff. And I thought

22:51

the power of that water would just suck me right

22:54

out. And then I'll

22:56

be really screwed because I won't have my surfboard

22:58

and I'll just be floating into the ocean.

23:01

Oh no.

23:05

Eventually the waves pushed

23:07

me away from that rocky cliff

23:09

and I could paddle into one of the little

23:12

coves.

23:12

When she

23:14

stood up on the beach, she had no idea

23:16

where she was. All she could see

23:18

were the boulders and rocks close to her, then

23:21

a blur beyond that. She scrambled

23:23

over the rocks, made her way inland and

23:26

found a house.

23:27

Me being hard-headed,

23:29

instead of knocking on the door and

23:32

asking for help, I decided

23:34

to go and see what's at the end of the road.

23:37

She hitchhiked all the way back to

23:39

the beach where she'd started surfing.

23:41

She'd been missing for more than two

23:43

hours. They

23:45

had called the coast guard. The

23:48

police were looking for me. There were helicopters

23:50

looking for me. My friends were

23:53

worried sick, obviously.

23:56

And it was just, I didn't explain

23:58

to anybody that I couldn't see very well.

23:59

and they needed to watch out for me. Nobody

24:02

knew.

24:06

Ling had learned her lesson. She was legally

24:08

blind. She was a surfer. She

24:11

needed to put those two things together safely.

24:14

A year later, she reached out to the manager of

24:17

Canada's adaptive surfing team, where

24:19

there were others like her, and she asked

24:21

to join. They were eager to sign

24:24

her up and invited her to compete in California

24:26

that December.

24:29

I was very nervous. I remember telling my mom, like,

24:31

mom, I'm on Team Canada. I'm

24:34

going to go do this contest. And

24:36

I said, what if I just really suck? And

24:39

she said, okay, you're doing this

24:41

because you want to show people out there that

24:47

even if you have a visual impairment as a young woman, you can

24:49

still do really great things. And

24:53

just go out there and have a good time and focus on that. Your

24:57

mom is wise. And then she said, but I

24:59

think you should go and train and make sure that you don't

25:02

embarrass yourself.

25:08

She headed down a month before the competition to train, and

25:11

she met another adaptive surfer, Chris Oberle. He

25:15

was an architect who lived in a van. They

25:17

hit it off. And

25:19

he said, look, I go surfing

25:21

every day, every morning before I go to work. I'll

25:25

come, pick you up, take you surfing, and then

25:27

I'll go to work.

25:29

I said, are you serious? And he

25:31

said, yeah. And he picked

25:33

me up every day after that, early,

25:36

early in the morning, before the sun came up, we

25:38

went surfing, and then he dropped

25:41

me off back home. Chris is paralyzed

25:43

from the waist down. When he surfs, he

25:45

uses a paddle and a wave ski. It's

25:48

essentially a surfboard that he can sit on and

25:50

strap himself to.

25:52

Chris started coaching Ling and helped her

25:54

know when to drop in to catch a wave.

25:57

He'll be like, there's a wave coming.

25:59

It's about... It's about 30 seconds away. It's

26:02

a medium-sized wave. Okay,

26:05

now it's about 10 seconds away. I

26:07

think you should go right. Okay, five,

26:10

four, that was how he used to call me

26:12

into waves. And I used to laugh. And

26:15

at one point I just said, look, you don't have to do

26:17

the whole description. It's okay,

26:19

just let me know when the wave is closed

26:21

and I'll turn around and I'll go. Chris

26:24

got the message. And when it came

26:26

time for her to compete, I kept it short

26:29

and coached her to a silver medal.

26:32

It was a nice win. But more importantly,

26:34

the event introduced Ling to a lot

26:37

of other adaptive surfers from all over

26:39

the world, all with different abilities.

26:42

No one here felt ashamed of who they

26:44

were.

26:45

Everybody took care of each other and met

26:47

each other's needs without question

26:49

and

26:50

without pity.

26:52

You know, there wasn't like, oh, okay, what's going

26:54

on with you? Oh, I'm so sorry about your eyes.

26:57

It was just, how are we doing today?

26:59

How did you surf? What are we gonna have for dinner? It

27:01

was just friends coming together.

27:03

And it was

27:04

just normal. And I think that's what

27:07

I was looking for for a lot of years.

27:10

Meanwhile, Ling and Chris's shared love

27:12

of surfing grew into love for each

27:14

other. And they realized

27:16

that their abilities and disabilities

27:19

somehow work together. So

27:21

I have a visual impairment,

27:24

but I am physically

27:26

capable. Chris is in a wheelchair, so

27:29

it's a lot easier for me to move

27:31

his board down to the beach for him

27:33

or to the water's edge. But once we're in the water,

27:36

he's helping me. Yeah, it's

27:38

cool that you guys together are

27:40

like this super team.

27:43

Yeah.

27:47

They married and moved in together. There

27:49

was no debate on where to live. They

27:52

would surf every day. Home

27:54

for them was out there on surfboards

27:56

in the water, so they would need a house

27:58

near the beach.

27:59

Exactly. We're about six

28:02

blocks away from the beach. And

28:04

that's why we chose this place. They

28:07

rent a small space in Oceanside, California,

28:10

with Fling's worsening vision and Chris's

28:12

wheelchair. They adopted the home so both

28:15

can move through it effortlessly. We

28:18

set up our home to be something

28:21

that's stress free,

28:23

hopefully, and tranquil

28:26

and relaxing and easy to navigate,

28:29

because I

28:29

think that should be anyone's

28:33

home. It's a home where

28:35

everything is in its right place all the

28:37

time. And Ling feels

28:39

like she's also in the right place this

28:42

time. When I was younger, I was

28:44

never home. But nowadays

28:46

I spend more time at home than anywhere

28:49

else. And I love it. I never thought

28:51

I would be a homebody. A

28:53

homebody until the surf's up.

29:00

Like this recent early morning beach

29:02

day when Ling waxed

29:04

her surfboard, grabbed Chris

29:07

and went out to see what the water had for them. How's

29:10

it looking out there?

29:10

Well,

29:12

you can probably paddle out wherever. It's

29:14

like it's breaking in front of the tower here. And

29:18

over by the rock wall.

29:20

Does it? Is

29:23

it a big board day? I think it's

29:25

a big board day. OK, it's

29:28

a big board day. It's

29:30

a home by the sea where Ling feels seen.

29:35

Yes.

29:48

You've been listening to Home Made

29:50

by Rocket Mortgage. My name is Stephanie

29:52

Fu. You can reach us at rocketmortgage.com

29:55

slash homemade or find

29:57

a link in the show notes to this episode.

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Great news! As a HomeAid listener,

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you're eligible to score an exclusive $2,000 credit

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towards buying a home.

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