HANGING ROCK - Linda and Larry Bond's family business is taking care of families.

For the Bonds, owning and operating Stepping Stones Day Care in Bond Hollow off of State Route 650 has been a labor love.

In the four years since it opened, the day care has become the centerpiece of the close-knit family.

"My life is my kids," Linda "Daisy" Bond said matter of factly.

The day care staff of five serves approximately 40 children, 24 hours a day, seven days a week if necessary. As a state certified type A day care, the facility can only handle 12 children at a time.

Linda wouldn't have it any other way.

"The kids that come out here need me the most," said Linda, the former mayor of Hanging Rock and first female mayor in Lawrence County. "They need one-on-one relationships. They just need love and attention."

Toys lie scattered everywhere and the children have much to keep them entertained and educated.

The secondary name of the day care is the Land of Goshen which has its roots in Linda's faith. In the Bible, Goshen - which means land of provision- is a small town where Joseph goes to raise his family, even as the pharaoh owns the rest of Egypt.

Bond has taken this theme of provision to heart. In addition to providing the children all they need, she goes above and beyond to help mothers and families get back on their feet, often at her own personal expense.

"God has blessed me. When he says provision this is what he means," she said. "He told me, 'there will not be a need that I will send you that you won't be able to provide for."

Bond's daughter Kelli Hamilton has seen how giving her mother can be.

"Whatever God has blessed her with, she turns around and gives it back to the mothers," Hamilton said. "She gives everything back to the day care and the children."

Looking ahead, Bond has a grander vision of things to come. The family has already started building a new home styled after Middle Eastern architecture, affectionately known as the Sand Castle to the children. Once completed, she will move the day care into the new house with her because it will have much more space and will include a learning center, library, movie room, gym, nursery playroom and more.

She hopes to eventually develop the family's 125 acres to include a foster home and a cabin retreat for abused men and women to come to until they can get their lives back in order. But her intention is not to try to make a single dime.

"I could make a fortune if it was all about making money," she said. "I am broke because I put all my money back into my day care and my children."

The Dart is a weekly feature in The Ironton Tribune in which a reporter throws a dart at a map of Lawrence County and finds a story where it hits.