About Me

Early that morning there was a knock at the door, and to my surprise, there on the porch stood my brother, toolbox in hand. He and I both had some time off during Christmas break that year. I asked him what he was up to and he said “I’m here to finish your basement.”

What?!

Let me back up a little.

Have you ever felt so thankful that it just melted your heart and you just felt like a puddle of mush on the floor? Thankful mush. You can never thank the person enough, you may never be able to repay them; and also, you are so happy you may cry.

We’d lived in our house for awhile and I’d gotten licensed to provide child care in our home, which had been a dream of mine. My husband and I had children that were small, a budget that was small, and a house that was full of opportunities for investment; including the opportunity to finish the basement, something I desperately wanted us to do. My husband had started on it and worked hard, but between our tiny budget for materials and him having very little free time outside of work, we had been feeling like this was a project that was going to take forever.

Back to the porch, now. “What?! You’re here to finish my basement?”

And in that moment, I felt like I was looking at the kindest brother ever; who also knew how to build basically anything and who planned to spend his time off at Christmas surprising me with a lot of progress on finishing a basement. Me: “I don’t have any money to pay you!” Him: “We’ll figure it out.” And we did. It was great. Life changing, actually. Before long we had nearly double the finished space to work with and that is a beautiful thing when you are aspiring to arrange a great day full of learning each day for eight young children! My husband worked with my brother as much as he could, and I’ll forever be thankful to them both; to my brother for being the instigator for dramatically speeding up the whole project, and to my husband for starting it and continuing to work on it all he could. The two of them did an impressive, professional job. I was so excited for the possibilities this created for our own children, for my child care clients… everything. And that was the very beginning of our in-home classroom space!

The story above is one that frequently comes to mind when I think about “Thankfulness”.

Another story I think of is one that we all share to some degree. One about thankfulness for the good people in our lives who have invested in us and helped us become versions of ourselves that we can be proud of; people who want to pay it forward and contribute to making the world a better place.

If I start thinking about that and my own life so far, the list of people I’m thankful for can get pretty long! My family, special teachers, favorite pastors, lifelong friends, two exceptional bosses who taught me a lot, a group of amazing coworkers who felt like family, wonderful clients, and others.

Working from home now, I don’t have coworkers to help in the way that my former coworkers taught me, twenty-plus years ago; but every day there are opportunities to make a positive impact on the children in my care and on their families. I also like the idea of sharing stories with you; the caring family members, friends, teachers and child care providers in other children’s lives, who may find ideas here that could benefit you in your own efforts caring for, teaching and raising these little human beings you love.

There are many of us out here in the world who care about early childhood. We are each working in our own unique ways to benefit children. We don’t always know about each other, and there can be days where the world won’t make you feel like your efforts are valued, but you are changing it! Every time we invest in a child’s healthy, successful early childhood; we make the world; and the future, just a little bit better. Thank you to each of you for being a person who makes a positive difference in the life of a child, thank you for being here, and welcome to Ninth Child Home!

Anine | Ninth Child Home