If you want to know the story behind how Fei and I opened a home daycare here in Saint Louis, this is the article for you.
A Christmas Visit
My wife and I came to my native hometown of Saint Louis to celebrate Christmas 2019 with my parents. When we flew off from our adopted hometown of Xiamen, China, we had no idea that we were accidentally moving to Saint Louis!
Fei went into premature labor over the holiday and was confined to bed rest. She was six months pregnant at the time. Only days after Christmas, she was sent to Missouri Baptist Hospital to delay the pregnancy. Even so, our lovely daughter Feronia was born almost two months early, weighing less than five pounds.
Those early days were so scary! After seven weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Nia came home looking healthy and happy. While she quickly caught up on her weight and height, she was still too delicate to travel.
Of course, that was right at the onset of the covid-19 epidemic. Times were scary and the three of us hunkered down with my parents. We shopped once a week wearing surgical gloves and masks.
Hunkering Down With Family
It was also a time of discovery. Living together helped my parents and I to understand each other in new and lovely ways. And we all delighted in watching Nia begin to bloom.
But we were still playing the waiting game on China. We couldn’t get a visa for Nia and, with all the uncertainty around covid-19 in 2020, China didn’t want to let unnecessary risks into the country.
And then, tragedy struck. At the end of 2020, my mom received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. We were all hopeful and she fought the good fight. We had four final months to share our love but mom passed away in the spring of 2021. It was hard for all of us but the hardest on my father.
Mom and dad met when they were 17. They were bless with 53 years of marriage but were looking forward to 20 more years of love and adventure.
Decision Time
As the family recovered from mom’s death and time stretching into the summer of 2021, we had to make an important decision. While my wife still pined for her home country, as anyone would, it became increasingly clear that the realistic decision was to settle permanently in Saint Louis.
So we made the mental leap and began to look for a place to live. By this point, we had spent Nia’s first year and a half at home with her. We decided to look for a place that could be both our forever home and a home daycare. That way, we could spend Nia’s youth with her until she is ready for first grade.
It helped that we both have a background in education. My work partners and I opened a child care center in Xiamen, China, back in 2011. We started with 16 kids and one room. Over the years, I’ve done it all, from teaching to finance to HR. Fei began teaching in 2016, using her professional music skills to help kids blossom.
Turning Our Home into Your Home
After an exhaustive home search, we found a home with good bones surrounded by neighbors who supported the idea of a home daycare. After 10 months of renovations, training and inspections, we earned our home daycare license. It was a lot of work but the improvements made our house a safer home for our daughter and her friends.
Now that we are up and running, we love our lives! We are beyond lucky to help Nia and her new brothers and sisters as they grow and mature. We look forward to sharing in Nia’s journey and growing right alongside Nia and her extended family.
