Kelsey Carlson calls me from the road, as she drives the quiet ribbon of highway connecting the hospital where she works to the small-town child care that has changed her life.
Not long ago, when her daughter, Avery, went to a different child care, Kelsey would sob while driving to pick her up. She worried her daughter wasnât safe. She dreaded the thought that Avery was planted in front of a TV. She cried because she felt terrified she was failing at work and failing her child.
Today, as Kelsey drives to pick up her daughter, her fear has vanished. A year ago, the Carlsons moved Avery to The Valley Child Development Center, a one-of-a-kind center in Red Cloud, Nebraska.