“Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I liked to take a minute
Just sit right there” … just kidding, but seriously…
I tell this story on a daily basis, but thats okay its my favorite story. My son Ryker was born on May 25th, 2018 with a rare congenital heart defect called hypo plastic left heart syndrome. After he entered this world I knew my life would never be the same. They placed him onto my chest and his brand new little eyes opened and look straight into mine. I’ll never forget that moment because that was the moment I made the lifelong decision to fight for my baby. I became an advocate that day.
A few weeks after Ryker was born and after his first open heart surgery a fire lit inside me and I started thinking of ways for me to spread more CHD awareness. Before I got pregnant with Ryker I had never even heard of congenital heart defects and now it was my mission to make it known to everyone. To make people aware. I couldn’t do enough to speak up for Ryker. I was making posts, writing in journals, documenting everything, researching every night until 2:00am. Congenital heart defects have become my life.
I came up with ‘This Little Heart Of Mine’ and I slowly started to piece it together one idea at a time. Before I knew it I had Ryker’s heartbeat printed and turned into our logo and then our brand was born! Seeing Ryker’s heartbeat every single day is a daily motivator for me. This brand is a piece of my son. It motivates me to wake up everyday and go to work because I look at my sons heartbeat and Im reminded of all the children out there, like Ryker who are battling a CHD. The families and mothers like me who are going through the hardest time of their life. I do this for them. They are also a piece of our brand.
This Little Heart of Mine is a brand… but it's also a story. It’s the story of how I went from a heart mom to a business owner. How I built a business out of my sons heart (literally) and the endless amount of blood, sweat, and tears a mother will go through to defend her babies. There are lots of perspectives you can take from our story… but the one that I hope you see the most is… that we took a not so fun situation and made something positive out of it and we choose to wake up every single day and take the life we’ve been given and keep moving forward. You are not alone in anything that you go through and there are other people out there that do understand. Surround yourself with those people. ‘This Little Heart of Mine’ Is a brand created from our story, but we are also a powerhouse of families and children who are going through the same situations as us. Fighting a congenital heart defect. Each situation differs, but we are all connected by one thing… a heart. You are NOT alone.
