I dug up this video last night while I was reminiscing on the early days of Young, Wild & Friedman… and I was completely overwhelmed with emotion. 🥹 It’s filmed from the POV of my 7-year-old daughter, Evie, who had childhood apraxia of speech. I didn’t even know this video existed on my camera roll. She’s behind the camera, quietly narrating, “Mommy making play dough balls. Mommy loves play dough,” while I’m at the kitchen counter just… trying to help her. At this point in our lives, Evie had just turned seven and was speech did not come easy. We had already been in therapy for years. A doctor had told us, “Try sensory play. It can help with her language and anxiety.” So I started making homemade play dough and little sensory kits at my kitchen counter. Not to start a business. Just to help my girl. I had no idea that first batch of dough would become Young, Wild & Friedman. No idea that the hardest, heaviest season of my life was actually the seed of something that would bring me more joy, purpose, and passion than I could’ve imagined. It’s wild how God works. In the moment, when you’re exhausted and scared and asking, “How could any of this be good?”… you can’t see it. But then time passes,- months, years, and His purpose starts to unfold. Looking back now, I can see so clearly how my child’s differences, our struggle, our confusion… were all part of a story that turned into this beautiful thing. Today, as I think about my small business and where it started- right there in that little video…I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. For Evie, made perfectly and wonderfully exactly how she is. For the doctor who suggested sensory play. For that first batch of homemade play dough. For the incredible women who now work alongside me. And for YOU- the customers who turned my desperate-mom idea into a real business. If you’re in a hard season right now, I just want you to know: it might also be the beginning of something beautiful you can’t see yet. 💗