Getting Here

It’s taken me a long time to get to this point. A point in my life where my business became what I wanted it to be, not what I was trying to force it to be. But even with stumbling through, my story started evolving before I even knew I was going to become an entrepreneur. 

I have a long history of working in healthcare. Starting as a first responder many, many moons ago. This was my first step toward becoming a nurse. I spent several years working in and out of the ER as a nurse before I decided it was time for a change. I went back to school to be a nurse practitioner, which didn't suit me for a lot of reasons. But my family needed a change. And I wasn't about to let all of my experience and education go to waste.

What came next was unexpected…

Prior to having my second daughter, I spent a lot of time away from home. Too much time!

Juggling a traveling job and one child at home was hard. Bringing home a new baby, plus a pre-teen, two teen step-kids, a military husband, and traveling wasn't going to work for us.

This is when things got real and I realized I had to make changes. And as it turned out, the new baby was going to need a lot of attention. I was secretly hoping this wasn't the case, given the struggles I'd had with my older daughter – where my story actually began.

This isn’t a story about how nursing was the catalyst for my business. My story didn’t begin in nursing school. Not EMS. Not all the years I worked in the ER or was a travel nurse. Not my master's program. None of that.

It was being a mom. But not just any mom. Being a mom to a little girl who, before the age of two, suddenly developed a feeding disorder. Yes, an eating disorder at two years old. Most people don’t know this is even possible. The typical stereotype is that only teenage girls have eating disorders. FALSE!

Standing by helplessly, watching your toddler not eat is hard. Watching her cry as if someone is hurting her over what would be any other kid's dream food is gutwrenching. Having what feels like every other adult in the world talk down to you like you're a horrible parent because your child won't eat is torture.

It went far beyond picky eating. And I had no idea why.

When I tell people she only ate five foods, no one seems to believe it. It couldn’t be more true. When you can count on one hand the number of foods your child will eat, limitations are endless.

Everyone treated me like I was doing something wrong. Everyone treated her like she was a problem. And there seemed to be no help in sight. More than three years into our battle, we found help.

YES! You read that right. I had to advocate for her for three years before we could truly find the help she needed.

We tried a few different options over those years, but none were right or truly helped. Even with the right help, she showed some progress, but not a lot. But it helped. She went to therapy every week for a year and a half. She graduated and things looked promising. She would try new things with gradual exposure.

The work we had to put in was more than I could have imagined. Mostly, it was mindset work for me. Not to give up. Not to give in. There were so many days I wanted to fold. To throw it all away and let her have a life of ease. But I knew, ultimately, I wouldn’t be doing her any favors. Allowing her to restrict her body of vital nutrients would negatively impact her health. Giving in meant I wasn’t doing the best for her. 

It was hard. As many things are, I committed to showing up and caring for her no matter what hardships we faced.  

It's been 12 years since that part of our story began. And it's been damn hard!

She still has a hard time eating. Meals are still a challenge. And a lot of the time, it still feels like no one else understands us. Even the people who have been on the path with us have a hard time staying the course. 

But now, I'm better equipped. I'm better able to understand it and I'm more knowledgeable.

I wish I'd had this 12 years ago. I wish I'd had this knowledge and the ability to stand up when people looked down on me. Thankfully, I knew to advocate for her and I knew this wasn't just "supposed to be this way."

Things we’ve all too often taken as “the way it is” are not required. We can do better for ourselves and our children. We don’t have to accept when things make us uneasy. We know our kids best. 

This issue so long ago was the beginning of my journey into advocacy. My first steps toward helping other parents help their children and themselves through similar hardships. I had no idea what that beautiful little girl was changing in me. 

I couple of years into our struggle, I realized something needed to shift in our lives. I didn’t know what or how, really. So, I went back to school. I completed my bachelor's and then master's in nursing. I got my nurse practitioner in family practice and, as I mentioned, I didn’t care for that practice. But it wasn’t long after completing that degree that I realized I had more in me than working for someone else.

My story still had just begun.