Our Visit to Palmer Home

Brent, Kyle and I left Murfreesboro on Thursday afternoon and headed to Mississippi to visit Palmer Home for Children. We were very excited about going and learning all about their program. The drive down went very smoothly and Kyle was a real trooper. We arrived around 11:30 and picked up the keys to the West Gym Apartment where they had arranged for us to spend the night. The apartments are beautiful and very large. Of course after sleeping most of the way there Kyle was ready to play and crawled all over the large living room floor, eating cheerios and having a great time. Around 2:30 a.m. we finally got him to sleep and headed to bed. At 8:30 Friday morning we were standing in a three story building that is the original Palmer Home building. It was built in the late 1800's and is a beautiful building. We started our morning meeting with the President and Executive Director of Palmer Home. He asked us what our vision was and we shared our dream with him. He was able to advise us on many things and helped us understand a lot of things that we had heard about but hadn't quite been able to grasp. At 9:15 the Vice President of Youth Services joined us and shared with us what he does for Palmer Home and then allowed us to ask him any questions that we had about his job. He took us on a tour of the campus and inside a few of the buildings. The campus is beautiful and the kids have so much going on.  They have so many great oportunities there.  We went to the office complex and met with the Social Worker that is on staff and again asked a lot of questions and had her explain what she does. One question we asked each person we met with was, "what do you see being the biggest challenge that we might face in starting?" We got a few different answers and that was great because it gave us a lot to think about. After we finished there we were introduced to one set of house parents and shown around the house by one of the children who lives there, a three year old little girl. She was precious and very well adjusted and so happy. It was great to get to meet her and spend some time playing with her while we visited with her parents. We had lunch with the house parents and really enjoyed them. It was great to be able to see the organization from so many different sides. We had so many unanswered questions when we got there that now we feel we have great answers for. After lunch we went back to the apartment for a few minutes to regroup and then back for a second meeting with the President and Executive Director. This was where we spent the rest of the afternoon and were able to iron out a lot of things we weren't clear about. Everyone was so helpful and we came away with a wealth of knowledge and encouragement. We are very overwhelmed but also very excited. We have 20 pages of notes to go through, sort out, make to do lists from and get started on.

    We have really seen God's hand in all of this so far and know that He will continue to do His will. We are so excited and will continue to share our progress with you all as we go. You’re your eye out for our next e-mail newsletter. Please share this blog with everyone you know. The more people involved the better. We are so encouraged by the outpouring of love from all of you. You are each such a blessing to us.