I’ve always loved designing and building. Nearly everything in our house, cars, and life has been altered by me in some way. When our youngest daughter was diagnosed with a rare disease in 2017, our life’s path changed drastically. But, what didn’t change was my desire to design things to make our life work a little more smoothly. Making items for our daughter helped me process my thoughts and gave me some control in a situation I couldn’t control. It also helped eliminate the sense of hopelessness I felt when my daughter missed milestones. It kept me constantly moving with positive momentum.

Bringing ideas from prototype to final product and sharing with families in similar situations became a way for me to overcome the challenges of parenting a child with a rare disease. Some items I built just for us and others like The Flying Squirrel Feeding Pump Holder became commercially viable and has helped multiple families!

I love getting positive feedback from people using my products and knowing that I’ve made someone’s life a little easier. Our daughter is still medically fragile, but continues to get stronger. I ultimately want all of our kids to understand that the challenges you see in front of you can be used to your advantage and you can modify your world to play to your strengths.

In the early days of our daughter’s disease, I frequently recited a few lines from the poem Good Timber by Douglas Malloch: