Newcomers: Couple’s Spokane move accentuates positives

Ken and Vicki Sax had always planned to adopt. But when the southern California couple relocated to the Inland Northwest in 2004, little did they know how the move would shape their future family.

“We knew we wanted to adopt and had started the process in California,” says Ken, now a real estate agent and general manager of Coldwell Banker Northwest Group.

After the couple made the decision to relocate, they started building a new four-level home in northwest Spokane. As the house neared completion, Ken says a contractor offering a bid to finish the basement turned him onto the idea of adopting children from China.

“He had a coffee mug with a picture on it,” Ken says. “So I started asking questions.”

Although the contractor didn’t get the job – Ken says he and Vicki sunk all their money into adopting and never finished the basement – the couple went on to adopt two Chinese orphans: daughter Jamesyn at age 10 months, and son Owen at 25 months.

“I saw there was a great support network here for adopting from China,” Ken says, adding that other, more heart-rending factors influenced their decision as well.

“Chinese girls are typically abandoned – ours was left in an intersection. Our boy has a cleft palette, and he was abandoned.”

Today both kids are attending preschool and enjoying play dates and unique cultural activities through the area’s Chinese adoption support network.

In addition, Jamesyn and Owen are enjoying the attention of grandparents and other family members who relocated to be near them.

“We displaced nine other households around the country,” Ken says. “All family members from both sides—people who followed us here.”

Like Ken and Vicki, their extended family appreciates Spokane’s relative affordability. And since most moved from considerably warmer climates, they also enjoy the four seasons.

“The seasons are the greatest thing I’ve ever seen,” Ken says. “Just when you get tired of the weather, it totally changes.”

Ken says when they first began looking for a smaller town and a change of pace, he and Vicki had never heard of Spokane. But Ken’s sister in Seattle – the first family member to swap southern California for the northwest – suggested Spokane.

“It was actually a compromise,” Ken says, adding that Vicki was less than enthused about leaving the Los Angeles area for points north. “I wanted Wisconsin – I wanted to ride a snowmobile to work.”

Although it took some getting used to, Ken says the family is enjoying the northwest.

“We were like kids in a candy store the first year we were here,” Ken says. “To go to a hockey game and get great seats for ten bucks, that would never happen in L.A.”

However, some changes have proved more perplexing.

“When I first moved up here people kept telling me to blow out my sprinklers,” Ken laughs. “I was like, ‘What?’ “

The couple found rain gutters equally exotic.

“We’ve never had rain gutters before, and of course never had to clean them,” he says. “But we got to go to our first real pumpkin patch. And I still stop and stare at deer.”