08/29/2026
A Statement From the Owner of Bloom and Grow
I have given everything I have and then some to this business and this community. For the past 2 years, I have worked 50+ hours a week, mostly without taking a paycheck, and at times putting money from my own family into payroll just to keep the doors open. I worked hard to keep tuition as affordable as I possibly could while still paying our staff and providing quality care. I built Bloom and Grow because I genuinely cared about the children, our families, our staff, and creating something this community needed. Anyone who has worked in childcare knows how incredibly difficult and taxing this industry is, and despite everything we poured into this place, so much of what came back over the years was criticism, complaints, problems, and roadblocks. I kept going anyway, because I believed in what we were building.
Then my family’s life was turned upside down by something that had absolutely nothing to do with Bloom and Grow. After years of living a normal, happy family life, with no criminal history whatsoever, an accusation was brought against my husband and his brother regarding something alleged to have happened more than ten years ago, long before Bloom and Grow existed. By the time this came forward, my husband and I were married, had built a family, had a child, and had started Bloom and Grow together as part of a dream for our family and our community. I had nothing to do with what is alleged to have happened. This situation has caused a tremendous amount of pain and misery for my family, and unfortunately, that pain was made worse by a former employee after their employment ended following serious safety concerns and the breakdown of the employment relationship. The situation was made public after that individual’s unemployment claim was denied. I could very well share that person’s name and the details of the conduct that led to their employment ending, but I am not going to do to that person what they chose to do to me. As a result of that individual’s actions over the past several weeks, we received threats, harassment, and false reports to CPS and the childcare licensing division about my family. Ultimately, however, a trial and jury will determine what happened, as they should.
Through all of this, I have come to understand something incredibly difficult: the best way to save what I built, protect the jobs of the people who have poured their own hearts into this center, and preserve the childcare Bloom and Grow provides is to separate myself from it. Facebook and word of mouth were once some of the primary ways we gained enrollment as well as employees. Families told their friends about us, trusted us, and brought their children here. Now those same community channels have become places where false information about my family and my business is being spread and used to discourage people from enrolling. I have realized that I cannot continue to fight that battle while simultaneously trying to run a childcare center, raise my son, care for my family, and somehow find enough of myself left over to be happy. And the truth is, even before all of this happened, I was overworked, exhausted, and mostly unpaid. I have spent years pouring everything I have into Bloom and Grow, and I have reached a point where I need to choose my family and allow myself to step away. So, to the people who have gone out of their way to hurt my family: in a strange way, I want to thank you. You have given me the reason I needed to finally let go. You have made it clear that I cannot have the life I want while continuing down this path, and as painful as that realization has been, I am ready to accept it.
I truly believe the best thing for Bloom and Grow, and the best thing for my family, is to separate. I am selling the business to Sweet Peas Learning Centers. They have so many of the resources I have spent years wishing we could provide- stable finances, stable staffing, a fully staffed leadership team, and the ability to invest in the center in ways I simply could not afford. They have the opportunity to give Bloom and Grow the stability and support that I have always wanted for our families and staff. I am genuinely excited to see what Sweet Peas can do with what we have built, and I am grateful that the center, its staff, and its families will have the opportunity to move forward with those resources behind them. Bloom and Grow was never just a business to me. It was my time, my money, my energy, my ideas, my relationships, and an enormous piece of my heart. I am incredibly proud of what I created, even if the path to get here was not what I imagined. To the families and staff who supported me, believed in me, trusted me with your children, and stood beside us when things got hard… I love you all, and I will always be grateful that I got to be part of your lives. As I embark on my next chapter, I am choosing my husband, my son, my family, and the chance to finally build a life elsewhere where I can breathe, be happy, and not live in fear of what tomorrow will bring. I wish Bloom and Grow, Sweet Peas, our staff, and all of our families nothing but the absolute best.
