What happens to children in the hours after they enter foster care?

Most people never think about it.

They picture courtrooms, foster homes, case workers, and placements. But before any of that happens, many children spend hours and sometimes even nights sitting in government offices, conference rooms, and cubicles waiting to learn where they will sleep, whether they will stay with siblings, and what comes next.

In this episode, we sit down with Jenni Tice, co founder and Executive Director of Lily Pad, a faith based nonprofit creating trauma informed spaces for children experiencing foster care and victims of trauma. What began as one foster family's desire to do something better has grown into dozens of transformed spaces across South Carolina with expansion now reaching other states. Lily Pad creates living room style environments inside DSS offices and law enforcement agencies so children and vulnerable individuals have “a soft place to land” during some of the hardest moments of their lives.

Jenni and her husband Ben have fostered more than 40 children over fourteen years. Their own foster journey included adoption, reunification, heartbreak, and eventually meeting Ashlyn, a former foster youth whose story helped inspire the creation of Lily Pad.

During our conversation we discuss:

• Jenni and Ben’s foster care journey and how saying “yes” changed their family
• The heartbreaking moment that sparked Lily Pad’s mission
• What children actually experience while waiting in DSS offices
• Why trauma informed environments matter
• The role churches and volunteers play in maintaining Lily Pad spaces
• How Lily Pad expanded from one room to more than 40 locations
• Expansion into law enforcement spaces supporting children and victims of trauma
• The power of dignity, compassion, and creating safe spaces

This conversation is emotional, hopeful, and deeply practical. It is also a reminder that not everyone is called to foster, but everyone can help create a softer landing place for children and families in crisis.

Learn more about Lily Pad, see room transformations, donate, or volunteer here:

Website: Lily Pad Official Website

Room Gallery: Lily Pad Before & After Rooms

Instagram: @lily.pad.inc

Support The Podcast

Speaking Requests

If your church, conference, or organization would like Jason and Whitney to speak about foster care, adoption, faith, leadership, or living a meaningful life through small acts of faithfulness, you can contact them at: dreamsmallpodcast@gmail.com

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Music Credit

"Paradise Found" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons.

She fell asleep in a case manager's cubicle.

And then she told me she woke up to hearing, you know, she might be separated from her sister, she might go to a group home.

This family couldn't take her other kids situations.

And it was in that moment that truly, it was like a light bulb went off.

And I thought, well, I know what we could do.

We can do better than that.

We could maybe raise some funds and go to our local office and maybe they'll let us just put in a comfortable place away from all that, that the kids can have a place prepared for them so they don't have to wait in a conference room or a cubicle.

Welcome to Dr. Small, where we believe God does big things through the small and everyday faithfulness of his people.

I'm Jason.

And I'm Whitney.

We're a family of eight who's fostered, adopted, and stumbled our way through learning that small, everyday choices can change lives.

In a world that tells you to chase big, we dare you to dream small.

Because you know what?

It's not about chasing fame.

It's about choosing faithfulness.

Welcome back to another episode.

Super exciting episode today.

We have Jenny Tice with with us from Lily Pad.

If you don't know what that is, I didn't either until I got introduced to her.

And we're going to learn all about it today.

What I have learned so far is incredible.

Jenny, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me.

We are so excited that you're here.

And we should share.

You are our first non like contact.

Like, we've had some people on that I wouldn't say are friends, but we've had first non contact person.

We've had the joy and pleasure of hosting.

So thanks for joining us.

Oh, okay.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, you're kind of a big deal.

Yeah.

Well, I'm happy to be here.

Thank you.

All right, so before we get rolling and I do your intro, we're going to do what we're grateful for.

Whitney, you start.

I.

You know, I had a couple conversations today with one of our caseworkers, and the thing that comes to mind is I am very grateful for the lessons that we have learned along the way.

They've taught us a lot, even the really the hardest ones.

Right.

We've learned a lot.

So that's the caseworkers.

The lessons that caseworkers have taught us.

No, through my conversation with all the reflecting on it.

Yeah, I'm slow.

I got it now.

It's fine.

Jenny, you can go next Ladies first.

Oh, I have to tell you, I'm thankful for my neighbors because all my kids are over there right now.

Oh, that's a win.

Yes.

Yes.

Our neighbors moved in a couple years after we lived here and become best friends with the wife and.

Yeah.

It's just amazing to live near your best friend.

She's lived this foster care life with us.

Right.

Oh, wow.

What a blessing.

Yeah, that's been great.

Oh, I love that.

The Lord brought what I needed.

I didn't know what I needed.

He brought her.

Do they have kids similar to your kids?

Ages?

They don't.

They have really little ones.

And ours are grow or.

Well, ours are 16, 13, and 12.

And they have a 7 year old.

Is he 7 and 3?

So.

So your kids are probably helpful to her.

So it's probably a win.

Win.

Yeah.

Yes.

Except I was sitting out on the porch with my husband, and her husband had walked over, and then all of a sudden we see her come out because all the kids had headed to her house.

We were like, sorry, one space for the kids.

I love it.

She's like, what are y' all doing?

Yeah, yeah.

Very grateful.

Good.

That's awesome.

I can't imagine living next door to our best friends who are also foster parents.

That would be so cool.

Well, they're not actually foster parents, but she's just lived this life alongside me.

She is.

Got it.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

She's been a counselor.

It's okay.

She's been a counselor at an elementary school, so hand worked a lot with our social services.

And, like, that's even better, right?

I know.

Yeah.

Wow.

Sometimes when we had children, oftentimes there was, you know, it was hard for kids to open up to us, and they would open up to her, and it's just wonderful to have her nearby.

That's incredible.

Her husband's good too, but, you know,.

She's my bestie, but she's the real winner.

That's fantastic.

Wow.

Yeah.

I'm grateful for.

We have had a really, really nice spring here in central Indiana.

Usually it's cold late, and then it gets really hot.

You don't have a pleasant spring.

We've had a very pleasant spring for about six weeks now where it's been typically upper 70s.

Like, I'm helping coach my daughter's middle school softball team before Whitney had surgery.

And usually at the beginning of the year, you're in hoodies and stocking hats and coats, and this year it's been at most a hoodie.

So really grateful for that that we've had a really nice spring.

That is nice.

Yeah.

All right, let's get into the intro for Jenny.

Jenny Tice is the co founder and executive director of Lily Pad, a soft place to land, a South Carolina Carolina faith based nonprofit that creates trauma informed spaces for children and vulnerable individuals in crisis.

As a registered nurse and foster parent who has welcomed more than 40 children into her home, Jenny's lived experience has shaped a mission centered on compassion, safety, and hope.

Today, Lilypad has expanded to more than 40 locations across the state in partnership with child welfare agencies and law enforcement.

Wow.

That is.

So you're talking four years.

In four years you've done all that.

Wow.

Not just me.

Oh, man.

Not just me.

Sure.

Yeah.

So many family friends and just stepping forward in faith.

Like just.

Oh, I love that.

Okay.

Lord, if you want us to do this, we're walking forward, hands open, you know.

Oh, I. I love everything about this.

Yes, absolutely.

It just takes that one.

Yes.

And things just go right.

Yeah.

So let's start.

Sometimes you don't know what you're saying yes to.

True.

So you're an rn.

So are you still working in that field at all?

Right now?

I am not.

My full time role has become Lily Pad.

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

But so how long did you foster?

Okay, that's smart.

Yeah.

So how long did you foster or.

Let's start.

Gosh, I want to know so much about you.

This.

Let's open it.

It.

Just tell us your personal foster.

Hold on, Whitney.

I got it.

Whitney, I got it.

Start with your personal foster journey and how.

I'm assuming that led you to launch Lily Pad.

Yes.

So we are actually still licensed.

We're still licensed foster family.

We've been licensed for 14 years.

Going on 14 years.

Our daughter was three.

She's biological to us.

And my husband was in law enforcement and I worked labor and delivery at the main hospital system downtown.

I was caring for a homeless patient one night and her.

She was having her third child.

Her young sister who was trying to get her college education, had a child of her own, was single, was now raising her sister's children, and this new baby was coming to the world.

And it was from that and several other experiences, but that was the catalyst of.

I went home and talked to my husband, just said if we were licensed, I feel like we could help more in this situation.

We knew nothing of foster care though, and lots of fears from both of us, but from his side, especially of being in law enforcement and possibly having interacted with some of the families of the children you'd be serving.

So we were coming at it with different perspectives, but both very open to caring for the vulnerable.

We talked about adoption before we ever got married.

But I'll tell you, we learned a lot.

You know, we went into it possibly not looking to adopt, but I will be honest and transparent and just say like that.

We were thinking about maybe for our second child as we added to our family considering adoption.

And then foster care was brought into the mix as well.

And then of course, we've learned so much over the years and that's not the goal of foster care that we have been blessed with.

Two sons through adoption, through foster care.

Anyways, that was the catalyst, was just our experience.

And then we actually went to a private adoption lawyer and we're talking to him about adopting.

And we were young, we were in our mid-20s, and we just said, you know, we, we think adoption is what we're called to do to add to our family this next time.

And we don't mind race, age if they've had, if you know, their medical history, if you don't, you know, we just want to give a child a home that needs one.

And he looked right at us and said, have you considered foster care?

And turns out that he was attorney for our DSS for a couple years.

So then he was able to answer a lot of questions, a lot of those fears.

And we went ahead and got licensed actually for private adoption as well as foster care.

So we did both licensing processes at the same time.

We took five calls for private adoption and never felt called to say yes.

And the very first call that we got for foster care, it was easy.

Yes, the Lord made it very clear.

And we had that child for almost a year and then had a couple short term respite situations.

And then our sons came to our home and they were only supposed to stay for four to six weeks.

I don't know if what your experience has been.

Yep, yep, yep.

Two years later we were adopting them.

And did they come together?

They did.

Okay, they came.

So it was going to snow here in South Carolina, which is, you know, big deal.

A big deal.

We were actually headed out to take our daughter sledding and I remember the phone call coming in and the case manager at the time saying there's a 5 month old or an 18 month old will you take one or the other?

And I said, well, why one or the other?

And they said, well, you're only licensed for one child.

They are biological brothers.

Because of the snow today, things were rushed in court.

They're going to get it situated.

They'll go back to a family member in four to six weeks.

I looked at my husband and said, we can do anything for four to six weeks.

Well, he's not adopted.

Famous last words.

Yeah, I love it.

Our first daughter we adopted through foster care came to us that she just needed a little TLC over the weekend.

Oh yes.

And she was three months old and we already had a three month old and we were like, it's just a weekend, it's fine.

No, we can do anything.

Yeah, yeah.

That's how they get you, right?

Yeah.

Well, it's good.

I'm glad to hear it's consistent across all the states, not just Indiana.

Good.

Really is, really is.

Yeah.

So you asked me how that led to lily pad.

We had been fostering for a decade.

Then we made the choice after our sons that we were still called to foster and maybe not adopt if that came to be, but you know, be a bridge to reunification, Lord willing.

Or if they need to go to adoptive family to an adoptive family.

I don't think that's the norm.

I think maybe more families after they adopt, stop fostering or at least in my experience that's what it's been.

We were just following what the Lord called us to do.

So after a decade of fostering, we were actually looking to close our home but still felt called to serve in some way.

I think you both probably understand, like once you are living in it, it's hard to turn away.

You can't just walk away and close that door.

Yeah, no, we know too much.

And so, yeah, so we were just looking for like what the next thing was.

And we knew in our state and in many states that the older children were spending a lot of time in the offices and we had never fostered older children.

We had not even raised a teen yet.

So that was definitely a nerve wracking decision.

But we'd always taken the younger infants a lot that needed to go through withdrawals, medicines and stuff.

Just with my labor and delivery background, we were going through a difficult foster care story at the time.

Even after 10 years and feeling like we knew a lot of what could happen.

We were still experiencing a situation that we just was blowing our minds on how this was all coming to be.

And it was with a little girl that had been placed in our home before COVID Nobody knew Covid was coming, obviously, but her story was adoption, actually, when she was placed in our home, which is unusual because she was abandoned at the hospital.

And like I said, we actually told dss we're a bridge.

You know, I was actually shocked.

They couldn't find a family that would take in a baby girl especially that was supposed to be an adoption.

And then Covid hit, and we were all locked down in our homes, and she'd been with us for six months.

And I looked at my husband and said, could you hand her to another family?

And he couldn't even get the words out.

And I was like, okay, Lord, I think we're meant to have four kids.

And then her case due to Covid and everything kept getting continued and continued and continued.

And when we finally got in for a merits hearing after going to court for seven different times, being told she would be a TPR and adoption case, they switched her case to reunification.

Wow.

And knowing what we knew about foster care, like, right.

Like, our hearts were so conflicted.

Like, there was just concern, you know, I'm sure you understand, there's the desire for a family to be made whole.

But also, we had been.

We had let the guard down.

Sure.

So to say that.

Yeah.

And after raising her for two years, she was reunified in a situation that was difficult.

So we were coming up on, you know, seeing that she was going to be reunified.

She was doing weekends back and forth with family, and I just didn't want to look at an empty room.

And we called our department of social Services and said, if you have older kids that you feel like would be safe to come to our home, we would be happy to have them on the weekends that she's gone, just so they don't have to stay overnight in an office.

Oh, wow.

And of course, the very first weekend they had a child.

And, yeah, her name was Ashlyn.

And when she came to us, we learned, mind you, she's supposed to stay just for a weekend.

We learned that she had been in care since the age of three, adopted at age 10 with her sister, and then had survived abuse in her adoptive home.

And that's what was bringing her back into care.

Holy.

Yeah.

It was our.

I mean, that was our first teenage foster care experience.

Wow.

And in no way, shape, or form did we think that we were her saviors by any means.

But we, our family, and our church family all said, if you want her to stay in your home, like, we'll help You.

And so we did.

And her.

She had always been placed with her sister, and I hesitate to say fortunate to be placed with her sister, because there's nothing fortunate about their situation.

But Ashlyn was the oldest of four siblings, and the two brothers had been adopted in different families, and the girls had been adopted together.

So her sister Lauren came to stay with us.

And so we had our three kids, plus our other little one, doing transitional visits back and forth, and the girls.

And I laid my head on my pillow.

This was December of 21.

And I just thought, lord, what.

What have we done?

Because we're getting ready to face a very deep sorrow, sadness with our little one leaving.

And then these two girls are going to need to be adopted.

And couple weeks later.

Well, I'll say this.

First, Ashlyn shared with us her experience in the offices.

The babies can't tell us that.

That we were taken care of, but Ashlyn could.

And she'd lived a lifetime in DSS offices.

She'd said goodbye to her brothers in a conference room when she came to our home.

She had reported her abuse at school, been questioned by the police, been taken to our home to get her belongings, then brought to a DSS office.

And though she was placed in our home, that evening, she was in the office for hours.

And after all that, just, I mean, trauma upon trauma, she fell asleep in a case manager's cubicle.

And then she told me she woke up to hearing, you know, she might be separated from her sister, she might go to a group home.

This family couldn't take her other kids situations.

And it was in that moment that truly, it was like a light bulb went off.

And I thought, well, I know what we could do.

We can do better than that.

We could maybe raise some funds and go to our local office, and maybe they'll let us just put in a comfortable place away from all that, that the kids can have a place prepared for them so they don't have to wait in a conference room or a cubicle.

Did not know what the Lord had planned at that point, but that was like a light bulb moment.

And so he really used Ashlyn's story to plant that seed.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

And then, wow.

In the midst of what was one of the hardest times of our life, though, you know, we had been foster parents for so long, we.

We know how things can change, and nothing is a guarantee.

It was still one of the hardest times of our lives in our story with raising this little one for two years and her leaving.

The Lord brought these girls into Our story.

And a couple weeks after they moved in with us, my older sister, who had never been married, never had children, always worked in the public school system, in the high schools, approached us and said, do you think they'd let me adopt the girls?

And I was like, I think they will jump up and down for you to adopt the girls.

Yeah.

And she had had a sweet interaction with Ashlyn the very first weekend.

Ashlyn came because Ashlyn came and had a quinceanera that she was supposed to go to for a friend and had been so excited about it.

And we weren't able to take her, but my sister stepped in and was able to take her.

And so they had this special bonding moment.

And anyways, a year after the girls came to our home, my sister adopted them, so they became our nieces.

So Ashlyn's story, though, is what led to Lilly Pad wanting these kids to have a comfortable place prepared for them, away from all the chaos of the DSS office.

Yeah.

So that's a very long story.

That is an incredible story.

It's amazing.

Has Ashlyn ever articulated to you what Lily Pad means to her?

Like, watching it evolve?

Yes.

Yes.

And this makes me very emotional, because she.

No, it's okay.

She should hate the world and everyone in it.

Right.

Like, she has been.

She has been disappointed.

It's not even the right word.

But just destroyed by adults.

Yeah.

And she made a profession of faith.

A church camp a year after her adoption.

And how do you build trust with a child that has gone through all that with adults?

And Lilypad has been a way to do that.

We heard her tell us what she experienced.

We wanted to make it different for kids coming after her.

And when we first started, I did tell her.

She calls me auntie.

I never thought I'd be an auntie, but I said, ashlyn, sweetie, we don't have to use your story.

This is your story.

It's your experience.

We don't have to share about it for Lily Pad to exist or move forward and serve more kids.

And she said, no, Auntie.

I want.

I want girls to know they can tell somebody, and somebody will listen.

And she.

She just.

She's the most amazing person.

I hope you meet her someday.

What a brave young lady.

Holy cow.

Mm.

And I'm just gonna.

Law enforcement.

Yeah.

I just had a conversation with her the other day, because law enforcement's new.

I don't know if they told you that for this, but law enforcement's new for Lily Pad.

And so we're doing a lot of Victim care and wow, putting in soft rooms for, like, victim of sexual assault.

And that's Ashlyn's story.

And I, I wanted.

I asked her, I said, you know, this is something different than just growing up in foster care is another part of your story.

You don't have to share it.

And she said, no, I want to share it all.

I want to share it all.

I want people to know that people will listen.

And her testimony is going to create ripples of change.

Oh, my goodness.

Wow.

What a brave girl.

I'm getting teary.

I'm getting teary eyed listening to this story.

I don't know how you don't get emotional.

Listen to that.

She.

She is amazing.

She's taught us all just so much.

So we thought we were meant to adopt a fourth child, have a second daughter.

We thought we knew what God had for us, right?

And no, I mean, God had written a different story.

And I look at my nieces and I.

And they know.

They.

They knew the little one that we said goodbye to, and they know how hard that was.

They walked through that with us because they moved in before she left.

But I have looked at them in the eyes and said I would do it all over again to have you here.

And I would.

That doesn't mean I don't love the little one we had to say goodbye to.

Two things can be true.

Absolutely.

1,000%.

So, yeah, story, she's at cost.

She just finished her freshman year of college, so she's only one of the less than 1% of former foster youth that go on to get a four year degree.

That's her.

Is it that low?

I knew it would be low.

I did not imagine it'd be that low.

That low.

So when she moved in, she's taught us so much.

So when she moved in, and her sister, too, her, you know, they just have different stories and different experiences and.

But Ashlyn, when she moved in, because of all the moves she's had, she was behind in school.

And not because she's not smart.

She's so intelligent.

She'd just been moved so many times, and she actually completed high school in three years and caught up with her with her age group and then went on to college.

So.

Yeah, well, whenever she does what she does as an adult, I'm gonna be glad to say I know of her.

And like, I heard about her before, she does all the things she's gonna do, do.

So thanks for sharing her with us so we can be like, oh, I know of her.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll Tell her to come talk to you guys sometime.

I know, right?

I.

We would love to talk to her.

Like, one of the things we've done over the.

We've had a couple.

One, two, one so far.

Former foster youth on.

Because we love hearing their stories and they, you know, they share perspective we can't share, so.

Absolutely.

Wow.

Yeah.

Well, you answered my next question.

Since developing Lilly Pad and implementing it, how have you seen those environments really transform those first few hours for a kiddo, instead of sitting in a cubicle or a desk or conference room, how have those spaces changed their entrance into foster care?

I, for a while didn't know, other than Ashlyn saying how much of a difference it would have made.

But then we were still fostering when we were putting lily pads in, and we had a teenager come stay with us who, because I worked 12 hour shifts at the time at the hospital and my husband as well, we had said yes to an emergency placement and told our placement team, like, we both have to work 12 hour shift tomorrow.

It was an emergency placement.

I don't know what it's like where you are.

But they would still bring him just to stay the night.

And they took her to the lily pad the next day while we were at work, and she stayed there.

And then she came back to our house that night.

Did I ever think they'd be used in that way?

No.

But I was just so thankful it was there for her.

And then I was speaking at a school in town and talking to some of the kids, and a young girl approached me and she said, I've been in foster care care almost all my life.

And I knew what it was like before the lily pads were there.

And I just want to thank you now.

I'm not looking for the thanks at all.

But that was a moment where I thanked the Lord for that because I needed to hear.

I think that they were making a difference.

Yeah.

And so I. I try to explain it to people as.

Think about us going to the DMV.

We don't want to be there for 10 minutes, let alone.

And these kids having just all of them experiencing some sort of trauma, being removed from their biological family.

I learned from my husband who did emergency protective custody situations, that they often don't know that anything's wrong or that their family's different.

They think everyone's family's like that.

Yeah.

Yes.

And so I naively thought, you know, they'd be happy to see him.

He's like, no, I am the enemy that's taking them away.

From their biological families.

And so I.

We just knew a.

It's silly because it's our tagline, but a soft place to land.

Like just a comfortable place for them to be.

And, you know, Ashlyn told us how important it was just to be away from the conversations of the office.

And there's great people working as case managers, working hard to find these kids placement, but they don't need to hear all of that, right?

Yeah.

No.

So before you continue, I kind of neglected to ask you this because I read about it, so I know what it is.

Describe what a lily pad is.

Oh, yeah.

For everybody listening, describe what that is.

Okay, so it is.

We go into the Department of Social Services offices here.

And in our state, every county has one.

And we take a conference room or an office space and completely transform it into what looks like a living room space.

Some of them have board and batten.

We will take out the dirty cockpit and lay down.

You know, nice floors, a comfortable couch, a rocking chair.

We talked to an occupational therapy therapist who had worked with lots of our kids.

She said children with special needs and those who've experienced trauma, if they could just rock, like us on a hammock or a porch swing, they will retain difficult information better.

So every lily pad gets a rocking chair.

Fidget toys, weighted blankets, a tv, a Nintendo switch, and say what you want about screen time, but when you have to be stuck in a building, like, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Yes.

And the teenage boys, they love the switch.

I always tell the kids, have you heard of.

Have you heard of.

What's our little cube called?

Whitney?

We just bought the next playground.

Next.

I have it.

Well, I will send it to you.

It's kind of like the new thing.

Yeah.

So it's just a little cube that sits on a table or in front of the tv.

You don't have a remote, There's a camera on you.

And you can play different games.

Like you can play Connect 4, you can play racing games, you can play bowling.

Basketball.

Bowling.

It's pretty neat.

So they get up and they're moving, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, and even our three year old with autism loves it.

Like, there's mirror games where it just makes them look funny.

Right.

So, yeah.

There's so many different things.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Please do send me the link.

It's pretty easy.

I might go ask my boys and they'll probably know what it is.

Probably.

They haven't asked for one.

Yeah.

So that's.

So Lily pad became a place right within the DSS offices that could be prepared for these kids so that whatever time.

Amount of time they're there, they have a place prepared for them with tools to just alleviate any added trauma to what is already a traumatic situation.

Have you heard of Isaiah 1:17?

Yes.

Okay.

We have two now in South Carolina.

Good.

Yes.

York County.

And they just opened one in Greenville County.

They just did the Ribbon County.

Wonderful.

We have.

We have two locally.

And when I was reading about what you had developed, I was like, oh, that sounds kind of like 117.

Okay.

I did not know about them until after we had started the lily pad.

And then a group that was working to get one here in Greenville reached out to us.

And I just think it's amazing.

It's that wonderful.

I've spoken to the woman that was working to bring the one to Greenville, and we'll be the first state that has a lily pad in every county and then now has some Isaiah117 houses.

You're in every county in South Carolina next year.

We will be.

That's incredible.

Well done.

We have.

We partner with local churches or foster parent associations to maintain them.

So we just don't.

We don't just put the room in.

We have a commitment to maintain them.

Beautiful.

It was very important to me that, you know, kids have a clean floor.

Everyone finds them in good shape, you know, down to the DVDs.

Like, if a child comes in and they've had a fit and finally settled and they want to watch a dvd, I want that DVD to be in the case so that they don't open it up and it's not there, and then throw a fit for the case manager.

So we partner with local churches, and they help us maintain our lily pads to keep them all up and running because we can't be all over the state.

That would be a lot.

Yeah, that would be a lot.

So, yeah, when you guys were developing these, the lily pad concept, obviously now in practice, it's proven itself.

But initially, did you get any pushback from.

You're not saying dcs, Are you saying dss?

Oh, yeah, sorry.

Ours is Department of Social Services.

Social Services or Child Services.

Did you get any pushback from them when you were initially trying to launch lily Pads?

No.

So I.

The Lord.

We had been foster parents for a decade there, so they knew us.

So I reached out to my friend who was an interior designer, also a foster parent, and just said, hey, you know, from Ashlyn's experience, I think this might be something that they'd let us do.

Let's See if we could raise some funds and you know, go put this room in Greenville county, which is the county we live in.

Honestly, looking back, I didn't even think of Rue.

I mean I was just seeing a couch and a TV away from everything, just fix something that developed into what it developed into.

So no, no, they've actually, they've been great.

I'm sure there was some like, you want to do what?

Right.

We have a DSS office in each county and then we have six regional, what they call adoption offices.

I think they just changed the name, but so we have one of those in our county in Greenville County.

So we have a Department of Social Services and what they call an adoption office.

So we have the upstate one.

So they handle all the children that are legally free for adoption in all the upstate counties.

That making sense.

So we went to that office and spoke to the director there, Kathryn Harmon, explained what we were wanting to do and she was very invested in it.

And it just took that one yes of yeah, Jenny, come in and do this.

And then once we did that and went to then Greenwell DSS and did that, then we had counties calling us like, are you going to come do this for us?

And I'm after everything we went through not always trusting the decision making right of our department.

This.

I've just been so thankful for the people that God has put in leadership over our state child welfare and had the opportunity now to get to know those at the state level, not just those at our county level.

And they are very invested in, I mean the state director at the time, he's no longer our state director in South Carolina, but he just looked at my husband and I and he said, we should have been doing this already.

Why wouldn't we help you?

So, yeah, so they were the catalyst for we'd like this in every state office.

They couldn't.

We are not a line item on their budget.

We are still independent faith based nonprofit that's funded through individuals and churches and foundations.

But they granted us some, some funds to help move it throughout the state and they've told us they would champion us to other states.

And the, the, the director, Michael Leach is his name.

When we first started, he said this is what we should have been doing.

This is the way these children and families should be treated.

It's dignity.

Right?

Yeah.

What's your hold on?

Let me, let me ask one question.

Mine will be a quick, mine will be a quick answer.

I know I have like 10 questions.

I have so many questions.

I'm not Always good at answering quick.

You're answering questions.

Great.

Yeah.

No, you're the fun type of person to interview where I can ask one question and you talk like for.

Those are like, when you talk to people, you want responsive questions.

What state is next?

Oh, boy.

We did get our fundraising certificate for another state, but we haven't.

Can't share yet.

Fair enough.

That's exciting.

It's close to you.

That's very exciting.

Hope it's not Michigan because, I mean, I'm just teasing.

Anywhere it can go is a good thing.

That's awesome.

That's so good.

I mean, if Indiana pops on your radar, I hope you contact us so we can help.

We.

We know some people that can.

That's what we need.

We.

So in the first year, we had 20 other states reach out and ask us to come do this for them.

New York even.

And I called New York and said, do you know that we're a faith based nonprofit?

That sucks.

That, that, that would be a reason why people wouldn't do it.

But yeah, it's a thing.

I mean, I just, I had to ask.

And they.

Sure, yeah.

I love that you asked that.

You were bold enough to ask.

Because I would have to.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

And they said, yeah, we just need all the help that we can get.

And they taught me something.

They at the time, I don't know if this is still the case because this is four years ago, they had a built in at least 24 hour waiting period because their children had to get a medical examination before they could go to a foster home.

Oh, geez.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So those offices always.

I had never heard that.

I mean, that kind of makes sense based on some of our history, why you would do that.

But it's also like, man, that really stinks for the kids.

It's awful.

Yeah.

That's just so much extra trauma.

Wow.

So when we do start moving to other states, Lord willing, we will need those that are invested already in that state, understand that system because they're all a little different.

And this has to be a community of God's people doing this together.

100%.

Yeah, we know.

We don't really have any insiders.

We are not insiders to the government, but we know some people that are pretty closely connected to the new director.

And so, yeah, whenever served faithfully alongside them.

All right, Wendy, your turn to ask questions.

Okay.

I have more of the logistic questions.

So yeah, one thing I want you have.

Hold on, hold on.

You have logistics.

Yeah, I know, right?

I Do.

I'm surprised you didn't.

I have more, but I wanted to.

Give you a. I've been to a lot of DCS offices.

I used to work for DCS in Pennsylvania before we moved out here.

Wow.

I know a lot of offices are tight on space.

So has that been an issue, just them having a space available to give to Lily Pad for this purpose?

Absolutely.

That's.

That's always.

Not always, but that is a challenge.

And I will walk through the spaces with the directors and the case managers and get a sense for how they're using the spaces.

And a lot of times, just through discussion and trying to figure out how we can set them up with, like, a system that works well and we're able to find something.

But if you look at our website, all of them are similar, but different.

They all have the same contents.

And you can see that our designer will reuse some designs just for, I mean, sake of cost and, you know, efficiency.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then when she has the time for the fun of it, keep it exciting, you know, put new designs in.

But you'll see we've done very small rooms, two very large rooms.

It just depends on the county.

We try to look at how many kids they serve.

So some of the offices do now have two lily pads.

We've.

We've started to a lot of times, because it will be visitation rooms that become a lily pad sometimes that.

I was going to ask that also.

Yeah, yeah.

We're very adamant about.

We want the lily pad to be available anytime a child or children need it.

So it can't be like a visitation room that you're moving kids out of, and then they can go back and out and back.

But there, I mean, we're getting ready to do one in Georgetown that is going to be a conference room slash lily pad.

But then we'll find another place in the office where we'll create, like, a soft area, a little seating area with a TV or the gaming system or whatever.

So if they do have to be moved out for a visit, there's still a soft area for them to be.

Yeah.

How do you get creative?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So on average, what type of cost are you looking at for one lily Pad?

So I've been asking my team.

I'm like, we need to get a square foot cost.

Oh, that would help.

Yeah, it really would.

Because we don't use contractors like my husband.

I have been at every Lily Pad installation, and our children, if we can take them, that's my favorite.

So you are the ones that actually do it.

And so we don't use contractors.

Our designer like I said was my friend who's you know, I call her our in house designer.

Yeah.

And so it's about.

We've had them 8,000 to 18,000.

Okay.

You know Richland county that sees 600 kids in care and we have our juvenile justice system is there like our.

Why is the name escaping me?

You know jail for juveniles.

And so when they come out of there then they are going to our department of social services there in Richland County.

And there's just those, those offices are just.

It's difficult.

It's the capital's there.

So we actually reinforced the walls.

Oh wow.

Because.

Yeah, I'm sure you know, I mean when kids have experienced trauma and there's no judgment but they've kicked walls or punched walls or what have you.

And so we were trying to set the.

Those working in the offices and the children that they would serve up for success.

And so I looked up how to how they reinforce walls and bars.

Wow.

So the cost of the wood to reinforce the walls.

But if you look at it, if you pull it up on our website it looks like board and batten.

You can't tell.

Yeah.

That is reinforced.

So that was more expensive.

We use washable rugs from ruggable.

Might be one of our most expensive pieces.

But we had a child come stay with us, an 18 year old boy.

And friends donated king size bed for him.

He was Big Boy, 6 4, 230 pounds.

And the very first morning I found him on the floor I was like buddy, what are you doing?

He's like I've never had a bed, Ms. Jen.

It was so comfortable sleeping on the floor.

And from that moment on I said we have to have clean floors and clean rugs.

And so.

So yeah, about.

We say about 15,000 would be the average, I guess.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You have.

As we move into law enforcement, you know and the same thing there's.

Sure.

There's the space issue.

Yeah.

And so you can walk into one office and they can offer you a conference room to do a lily padded.

And then the one that we just completed was a 7 by 12 interview room.

Well that's going to be significantly different cost than.

And are you still aiming the lily pads in police stations towards children like towards juveniles and youth.

So they're a mix of both.

So I'll use the one we just did.

For example, we're cutting the ribbon.

On Tuesday the sergeant called me and she's the sergeant over the Special Victims Unit.

And she said, I had to take a victim of sexual assault into our interrogation room, and I never want to do that again.

Oh, my gosh.

And she said, we've been watching your website for a while.

My captain gave me the go ahead to call you.

Would you ever consider doing this in law enforcement offices?

And I said to her, in that moment, I said, I don't know if you're a believer, but you're an answer to our prayers.

Because we're.

We're almost through all of our DSS offices here in South Carolina.

We just, with my husband's background in law enforcement, we knew that they could be helpful there.

And our hearts are with the families and children of South Carolina.

And this is an opportunity to continue serving the children and families in South Carolina.

Not that we won't move into other states, but.

Yeah, yeah.

So they are dual purpose.

But I think that you can see, too, when you see our rooms.

It's such a visual thing.

We consider the fact that they're in an office and they still need to look professional.

The design is important to us.

The colors we use are important.

They look beautiful.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And so this space in the law enforcement office, they wanted it to obviously be available for interviews for victims.

But then they shared with us.

You know, sometimes we have women come in with their children, and we don't know what to do with them.

Like, we're walking around the office trying to find them a coloring book.

And I was thinking, my husband and I are thinking, well, how do you manage that if they're all in the same room?

So we are getting Bluetooth headphones for the TVs, so the kids can be playing a game or watching a movie and then not hearing the conversation happening.

This office actually has a lily pad in their local dss and it's less than a mile away.

And they would, when they had kids, come into care in their office, sometimes go use the lily pad at the DSS office until a transition was made from law enforcement to Department of Social Services.

So they were familiar with it.

So, you know, she just, she.

She was very easy to work with.

The sergeant there, she just said, do your thing.

We just thought about, from our experience, you know, I thought, okay, I would think a victim would come in and with a support person, maybe.

So a love seat rather than a single chair.

Law enforcement, no matter what, though, they're dealing, they're handling victims, and it's not an interrogation.

Law enforcement always wants to be closer to the door.

So we thought about that with our layout of the officers will want to be.

Wow.

Closer to the door.

And then we have all of our toys, weighted blankets in there, but they can be hidden away to make it look more of an adult space.

We have our scripture on the walls and our books.

I had a lot of fun choosing the books for the law enforcement officers looking up.

Yeah, yeah.

Board books with police cars and stuff like that.

Like, just trying to change that over.

So you said your scripture.

Do you guys have the same scripture in every office, or do you have different pieces you throw up?

Different pieces.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I don't know how this will sound.

I think I can say this, but I told our designer, I said I want our scripture there, but I don't want it, like, in your face.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Okay.

So she found these beautiful prints that just soft pictures with the scripture there and Nice.

You kind of want it so that, like, when you walk in there, you're like, oh, this place is so lovely.

Then you find the scripture and you go, oh, that makes sense why this place is so nice.

Yeah.

Not the other way around.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm going to ask a question.

Yeah, I meant to ask it, like, 20 minutes ago, but you just kept giving so much good information.

I don't think you're gonna be able to have an answer, because I don't know how you'd add it.

Do you have any idea how many kids have been served in your lily spaces?

No.

I have to say, I didn't think so, but I had to ask.

We put a number on our website, which is like 27,000, and that's based off of the counties where we have lily pads.

And how many kids are in care.

Sure.

Because it's not just their entry day right there in the offices for all kinds of reasons.

I went in one time, I was cleaning a lily pad, and there was a young lady in there, and she had been waiting for hours just for the case manager to go get her siblings from other counties for a family visit.

And, you know, she was so excited about the Nintendo Switch.

And it's way better than sitting in a car for all that time, right?

Yes, yes, yes.

We've actually had our case managers ask for iPads or, like, Kindles.

What are they, Kindle fires or something?

Because they're transporting the kids for so long, they could take them in the car with them.

I'd love to get to that point.

Add that in.

Add that to our list of things we want to do.

Now.

I have no Idea.

How many people does it typically take to support a single lily pad?

Like, how many people for a good team, solid team, do you, on average, does it take?

Our best supported lily pads are those that have a church that has a specific church.

Okay.

A team.

We have a lot of volunteers who are retirees.

Yep.

And I've loved meeting all of our volunteers and hearing their stories, but for various reasons, they, they might move closer to kids or have a surgery or something.

And it's the, the churches, when they have a small group that's become invested in what we're doing, or a women's group or whatever, if, if there's somebody who is faithfully serving in that way, who has to step away for a minute, the church will bring somebody else right in.

But we've had some of our counties, big and small, cared for by a couple who just faithfully goes over there.

We try to build relationships with our maintenance partners, is what we call them, and the department, we have what we call a lily pad champion in each office, which is someone who works for the department who, you know, just takes ownership of the lily pad and communicates with our maintenance partner about needs.

So though Richland county serves 600 and McCormick county serves 2, McCormick county might get several cases that open up at one time at a random time of the year.

And we want our teams to communicate with each other.

And we might say Richland county needs seen three times a week.

Well, if they're getting kids in there every day, then we want our teams to know, like, hey, our maintenance partners to understand and our DSS partners to understand.

Please call and let us know that you've had a child there and you need the linens washed or whatever it might be.

So.

Wow.

Yeah.

Really trying to build those bridges and those relationships between that local community and that office.

It sounds like.

I can only imagine how much has evolved over the last four years since it started, like, thinking of those things.

Right.

Like, okay, well, we're doing this well now we need a champion over it.

You know, we need people to kind of adopt this room to help keep it up, because one person can't sustain that.

Meaning, like you can't sustain it.

Right.

So that's just incredible.

Yeah.

And we, we did hire our first two full time employees last year and we needed them.

Yeah, yeah, it sounds like.

Because if anything was going to keep me awake at night, it was whether the rooms were being taken care of.

And so we have a operations director, Kendra, who is amazing and just came right in and built out.

We Had a system in place, and she took it and just, you know, tied it up in a pretty bow.

And we've got QR codes in all of our rooms, so.

And a nice little sign that just says, like, this is.

Volunteers and donors have put this room together.

If you find something's broken, dirty, needs replaced, whatever, scan this code and they can scan.

Send a message to us right away.

So it could be if the room's being used for a family visit, if there's a child in there that wants to tell us something, if it's a case manager anybody can get a hold of.

Wonderful.

And then our maintenance partners also, every time they go do a visit, they send us a visit log.

Wow.

So, yeah, she's.

She's the best.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

Well, I think we should go to South Carolina and see one.

What do you think, Jason?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Come on.

Or somewhere in the state near you.

Isn't Greenville, South Carolina where we talked about moving, like a year?

That's what I told her right before you hopped on.

Yeah.

I was like, wait, this sounds really familiar.

Have you built your guys playbook so as you expand, you can scale easier and you don't have to have your fingerprints on every single room?

Have you built that playbook that you can hand.

Hand it off?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Lord has brought so many wise people around us.

You know, my background's in nursing, and my husband is in law enforcement.

They didn't teach me business in nursing school, and I am not in a place to go back to school.

Yeah, it's my.

Yeah, you sound busy.

You sound busy.

Yeah, it's my relationship with the Lord, my husband and my children, and then lily pad.

And if it displaces any of those, we have to readjust.

Good for you.

I'm in.

So encouraged right here.

Other people in similar spots as us in life that make that priority.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

We're called to serve, but we're not called to serve at a disservice to the children that God's placed forever in our home.

Amen.

Yeah.

So I lost track of what your question was.

But anyway, I feel like you just yapped a playbook.

We have.

Yes.

If we have, like, if you all said, we are so invested in doing this in Indiana, it would become top of our list to go there because we have to have those who I could say, well, I want to go to Georgia because it's close, but if I'm having to find somebody who wants to do it there, it's different, you know, if you already have the people who are invested and ready to do it.

We have the.

We have the playbook.

The Lord, you know, I do believe would bring the finances and the people.

Oh, yeah.

With it.

Yes.

So that's amazing.

I am so amazed by you and the fact that, like you said, like, you're not a business background.

It's that.

Yes.

Right.

It's the Lord's calling that he put on your heart and made it very obvious through these girls that you said yes to and how this beautiful story unfolded.

You know, beauty from Ashes, that's what it reminds me of.

And what a testimony for Ashlyn for you guys.

Oh, my goodness.

I'm just blown away, truly.

Thank you for doing this.

I'm impressed with.

You clearly didn't have this 40.

Maybe you did when you started in every single county in multiple states.

You just said yes to one room and you were obedient and acted.

And this is just what like, we talk about.

Dream small.

One thing at a time.

And that's exactly what you guys done and looked what this turned into.

Yeah.

My family laughs because they're like, it's kind of like when you said it would just be four to six weeks or just a weekend and you said it would just be a room or two, and now it's the whole state and other states.

That's fantastic.

God's going to do what God's going to do.

He is.

He is.

I hope I learned that by now.

Right?

Yeah.

I know what I was starting to say.

The Lord's brought some amazing people to our board of directors and just business minded people, finance, who have really taught us and helped set Lilypad up for.

It was very important to me that though we had those other states reaching out, that we set this up for this ministry to be successful long term, to serve these kids here long term and not just seek to grow it so quickly that fell apart.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

And I'm thankful for every person that the Lord's put in our path who's just heard about this need and wanted to come alongside us.

It's amazing to see how somebody who's a techie, computer person can help us build a system management program to keep track of everything.

And one of my favorite.

This has nothing to do with business or finances, but a woman that I graduated high school with her son, she had adopted both her children.

And it was one of my first experiences with adoption.

She reached out to me.

I had not spoken to her in 20 years.

But Facebook, she saw what we were doing with Lily Pad.

She's probably in her 70s now, and she just said, I want to help.

I don't have a lot of finances and I'm not very healthy and they live in Texas.

But she knits.

And she knits these beautiful blankets and she said, I would like to knit blankets in whatever color you want them.

I see that you use blankets in each of your room and I'll just send them as I have them done to your house.

And I'll get a package of blankets on my porch every now and then from.

Well, more often than I anticipated.

So that we literally have one handmade blanket put into every Lily Pad by this.

Aw.

That is so awesome.

Adoptive mother who taught me about adoption.

So it's just amazing that how the Lord just weaves people into your life and different ways that people can serve.

It's not about coming and being our maintenance partner or even giving a large financial gift.

People give in so many ways.

And yeah, really cool to see how.

Everyone can serve and when people use their gifts that they have to serve.

It's beautiful.

Yeah.

All right.

We could talk to you all night, Jenny, but I want to honor our time a little bit.

Share with everybody and I'll put this in the show notes where they can find more information on Lily Pad.

Can't they listen and like, you know what?

I want to do that where I live, share that contact information.

Your website, all the things.

Share all the things.

Okay.

Our website is lillypad inc.

So l I l y p a-n c.org and there's a newsletter you can sign up for as well as a contact page where that will come directly to our team.

I see them all.

I love to read where different people are coming from and why they're reaching out.

And we're pretty active on Instagram.

I'm not a TikTok person.

I understand Facebook.

We're the Facebook generation, right?

Yes, we are.

So they can find us there too.

So we're that old.

We're the Facebook generation.

My kids said I'm old because I post on Instagram.

I'm like, if you only knew.

Oh, old on Instagram.

Oh, my.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

How old are your kids?

Our oldest is 12.

And then we have a 10 year old.

They're biological.

And we have a 7 year old.

We adopted a almost 4 year old.

We've adopted a 2 year old.

We've adopted.

And then we have her 9 month old brother who we're fostering.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So nine months, 12 years.

You're busy.

Yeah.

And just side note, Whitney had hip surgery two weeks ago.

So I've been fighting the battles solo.

Well, for a week.

And her mom came here.

Our Grammy came.

Whitney.

Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?

Yes.

Yes, you are.

If it makes him feel better, sure.

He's been awesome.

He's been awesome.

I'm sure he has.

I have a great husband, too.

This is.

This is.

I always feel bad, like, doing interviews and stuff without him.

I mean, this would not.

He.

I was gone at a Lily Pad all day.

He went to the store, had all the kids picked up, had dinner made.

Yeah, that's a team sport, man.

You gotta have a good partner.

Yeah, it's.

Yeah, you have to.

All right, well, I could talk to you forever.

Thank you, Jay.

Thank you so much for meeting with us.

Your story is going to resonate.

I hope it.

The.

I'm going to make sure the people I think can help us in Indiana, because I think that is an incredible thing to have.

So.

Yeah.

The next step is the art.

Our Department of Social Services is willing for us to train volunteers from the churches that have partnered with us to come in and interact with the children.

So.

Oh, wow.

Make sure they have meals, make sure they get cleaned up, get clothes.

It's so much like Isaiah 117.

Just how it is.

Unreal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's beautiful.

And it's.

There's such awesome.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah.

You can't have enough soft spaces for kids going into foster care for visits or whatever.

Right now there's no.

Yeah.

There's no such thing as Isaiah117.

Like, they have to back off after three days.

So we're right there.

Proximity in the offices all the time.

And we will deal with the kids who are.

I mean, it is a space that is always there for the kids that are getting suspended or disrupting placements.

And Isaiah117 can't always take those kids.

Right.

So, yeah, it's.

It's.

I'm excited to see what the Lord does with us being here and them being here and see how we can all work together to serve these kids.

So your one yes has evolved into such a unique and amazing blessing for so many, and I absolutely love it.

And we really appreciate you coming on Jenny, and sharing about Lilypad with us.

And we're gonna wrap up right now, but I just want all of our listeners to hear that.

That this is what Dreaming Small is.

It's looking at how you can take something and change it for the better.

And it doesn't have to be a big yes.

But in Jenny's story, this one yes definitely evolved into a massive undertaking for the good.

Right?

So it's just been incredible to hear your story.

So thank you so much Jenny.

We really appreciate appreciate you being on.

And until next time, you guys keep dreaming small.

Thank you for listening to the Dream Small Podcast.

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