My name is Marshella and I have been blessed with a wonderful husband, Robert, since 1993. Rob is an Engineering Technician for the Department of Defense. He is my partner when he is present in the home, and my primary substitute when I am not able to provide care. I have one younger sister, Shantel, and she and my niece Heather visit from time to time. Shantel is a nurse, and she will substitute for me occasionally when Rob is not available. I also rely on the support of my mother in law to help me out when necessary to provide reliable, consistent, and uninterrupted child care for you. I do not often need to rely on my relatives.

     Our family child care business opened in January 1994. We also wanted to start our family at that time, but it took much longer than we expected! Our son Marshall was finally born in February, 2000. Wanting more children, but sitll having difficulty, we accepted into our home two foster children, Tyler (born 5/00) and Jasmine (born 10/03) in July 2006.  We are DELIGHTED to report that we are in the beginning processes of adopting Tyler and Jasmine!  Also delighted to report that we got an unexpected bonus child, Tabitha, born February 1, 2008.   Our family will be complete with the adoption finalization.  Currently, dually licensed as child care and foster care, we have very limited child care openings. This should chage by fall of '08 as we will adopt and then not take in any further foster kids due to the tight regulations restricting child care children numbers in the dually-licensed home.

My desire to be a provider is so that I may spend as much time with children as possible, supporting and observing their growth and development which I take a keen interest in. I get to hold babies every day!  I love to watch them grow and learn, and share their excitement and love of life. It makes my day when I see a child smile with confidence and esteem for his/her own accomplishments.

     I take my profession as a Child Care Provider very seriously. Please don’t call me a "babysitter". I attend many classes and seminars on an ongoing basis, in order to constantly improve my knowledge and skills. Aside from the experience over ten years of hard, dedicated work brings, I also have acquired over 500 hours of extended education. I am the past President of the Baltimore County Family Child Care Association.

     I operate an anti-biased, non-discriminating program, promoting multi-cultural awareness and understanding. I feel that the positive, loving, nurturing, family environment I provide will benefit all children. I strive to teach them that we are all special and can learn from one another. Cooperative play is encouraged while continually building on each child's individuality