Grandma from afar

Life Around the Preschool

How did my husband and I end up in middle Tennessee operating a preschool. When we first married 35 years ago we had big plans. He was in the US Navy and I was in my third year of college. We planned for him to do his four years and I would live at home and finish my college and become a history teacher. right? WRONG! After three months of tortue of being apart I moved to Mass. to be close to the navy base at Newport, RI to be there when his ship came into harbor. Thoughts of teaching never entered my mind until 26 years later Perry read a book about owning and operating a Christian academic preschool and asked me to read it too. When I finished my book I thought I could do that, in fact we could do that. We had 6 children, as a pastor's wife I had taught Sunday School, vacation bible school even directed one, and had baby sat other people's children every since I was old enough. So having a preschool was as natural an idea as breathing. Off we moved to Florida and began our journey to learn how to have one of our own.
While there we tried to learn as much as we could and in June 1999 we left and relocated to a small town in Illinois and thought God wanted us to open a school there with a dear friend but that was not to be. The week before Christmas in 1999 with Y 2 K looming over us we packed all our belongings and moved to Tennessee to live with our dear friends, the VanGorden's and began working for them at their school in Franklin, TN. We just knew if we were to remain in preschool we needed to be working in one until we could have one of our own, and we served there 5 years before God opened the doors here in Spring Hill and we started our own academy with 5 precious children. Now almost two years later, we have our first one running and opened the doors of our second school in June and Lord willing will have kindergarten when the new school year starts in August. It has been hard work and long hours, but if you could see their little faces and see how they love us and learn so much about God and how He loves them you would see why our preschool's were God's mission for my husband and I to minister to his little children.