Live Oak Acupuncture moving to Westrock Center, Waco TX
October 30, 2013 by Kristen Horner Warren
Filed under Blog
Today is my last day of seeing patients at 305 Londonderry. I am moving to the Westrock Center on Hewitt Drive and will be open for business there on Monday November 4. I am excited about the new location, which I believe will bring all kinds of good things for my family and my patients. But moving is bittersweet because Londonderry has been such a cozy home for my practice and my family. As my kids said, “we have so many memories here!”
I moved into the Londonderry office in 2006, when my twins were 10 months old and my oldest son was four. My practice was small at that time — as I have packed my old appointment calendars I see that I was seeing about fifteen patients per week. Leasing an office was a big step for me to take — to that point I had been a full-time mother and conducted my practice out of a spare bedroom in our home, seeing patients in the evenings and on the weekends. I was honored to be welcomed by a warm community of healers at 305 Londonderry — many of the other doctors there had been there for over twenty years. I have such a high regard for all of them, including my dear friend Dee Blinka, M.S.W. and other outstanding professionals such as Steve Dutton M.D., Sean McCarthy, M.D., Ron Cole, LPC, Betty Devers, Ed.D and many others.
At the Londonderry office my practice quickly grew and by 2008 I was seeing over fifty patients per week. I grew as a professional and learned so much from my patients. My children grew up at Londonderry, spending sick days and school vacations with me there. My beloved (and now deceased) bulldog Ruby grew up there as well. She developed a wonderful and very outgoing temperament largely because of the contact that she had with my patients, many of whom came to love her as much as I did, bringing her treats and taking pictures of her with their cell phones. Puppy teethmarks on the furniture and stains on the carpet are evidence of youthful lapses of judgment on her part. These things made me grit my teeth at the time but they make me smile and remember Ruby so fondly now.
In the years since 2006 I’ve been through an awful lot personally. I’ve navigated several major health challenges myself and gotten divorced and eventually remarried. Through all of this my patients, many of whom I consider good friends, have supported me and provided me with advice, encouragement, and love. This has meant so much to me — more than words can express. As a result of the loyalty and support of my patients, my practice weathered the economic challenges of the past several years without missing a beat. Not many small business owners can say that.
At this point I am the last remaining member of the community that existed at Londonderry when I moved here in 2006. The ownership of the building has changed hands several times and slowly all the other doctors either retired or moved their offices elsewhere. For a period of time I was the only tenant here — it was very peaceful but was a bit lonely! Eventually Providence took ownership of the building and moved their billing department and sleep center here and now the parking lot and office complex is bustling with activity again, but the warm feel of our original community is gone.
I don’t much like change and if it were up to me I would probably have stayed here indefinitely. But the Providence Sleep Center next door is overwhelmed with demand and Providence informed me a couple of months ago that I would have to move so that they can expand that facility. Fortuitously the space at Westrock Center became available and will be a perfect fit for me. There we will have more space and I will be able to offer new services like yoga, Tai Chi, and pilates classes taught by some of the best teachers in town.
As I make this move and look forward to the next phase of my professional and personal development I want to take the opportunity to express my very most heartfelt thanks to my patients and to the other medical professionals in this community who have been an essential part of the growth of my practice over the past seven years.
Charlie (left) and Sam (right), age ten months, on move-in day 2006. I had forgotten how cute they were at this age! Charlie is slightly blurry because they were in constant motion at this age and he is about to crawl off to get into more mischief. Toddler twins were EXHAUSTING.
Charlie (left) and Sam (right), age 8 years, on move-out day 2013.
My beloved bulldog Ruby, princess of the practice, August 21, 2009 – June 20, 2013.
