Click to read the full newsletter!
When Mercedes first heard about Family Relief Nursery, she was a new mom with little nearby family support and a guarded heart. “I don’t really trust a lot of people in general,” she says. It was Program Director Maddie, then a home visitor, who helped Mercedes sign up for support services. Mercedes recalls baby Jonathan being fussy during their first visit, but Maddie immediately asked if she could hold him. “She held him, I did paperwork, and here we are.”
Trust grew at Mercedes’s pace. FRN Staff never pushed for Jonathan to enroll in classes, they simply reminded her, “Hey, no pressure. Jonathan’s got a spot at respite.” Mercedes remembers it as a relationship she could steer: “My terms, my turf, my guidelines. I ran the show.” Practical help eased the way, too. Staff made sure she had diapers and wipes, including the specific brands Jonathan needed, and gas cards to get him to school and appointments. “It was always in such an easy, non-judgmental, ‘we got you’ way,” she says. “It made it easy to ask for help when I needed it.”
Jonathan has grown right along with that trust. Now nearly five, he’s in his second full year of preschool. Mercedes, who works in early intervention herself, says our teachers noticed things she hadn’t. “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would have realized that Jonathan was a complicated kid that needed a little extra support.” Those observations always came as partnership, not criticism: “Hey, we’ve noticed this. How can we help? What have you noticed?”
That partnership extends beyond the classroom. When Mercedes hit a hard day, she texted Teacher Colby, who called to talk for over an hour, even though it was her day off. The result is a boy who adores school. After a week of being sick, Jonathan was heartbroken to miss class. “He loves coming to school,” Mercedes says. “I wanted him to love school in the beginning because I never liked school.”
Mercedes now gives back, passing along outgrown clothes and toys. “I want them to be able to do for others what they were able to do for me.”
With kindergarten approaching, she admits to some worry. “Everybody wants their kid to be understood.” She’s already working on building Jonathan’s support team so familiar faces follow him. And she knows what made the difference: “You just feel comfortable the minute you walk through the door.”
