We were thrilled that Sky was sleeping most nights in his barn shaped bed. This was an answer to prayer. At home he slept, but if we ever traveled anywhere, he was awake ALL NIGHT. We desired to take our family on trips and vacations. It was just an utter nightmare when we were gutsy enough to try it. Sky just couldn't sleep in a normal bed. It was too stimulating to have so much open space around him, and he destroyed anything we tried, like tents, etc. To sleep with him guaranteed a sleepless night since he thought having someone with him meant it was party time!
In the wake of 2015, we were brave enough to travel to Florida. One of those nights Sky had the whole house awake at 3am... except the girls. Being born into the chaos, they were conditioned to sleep through the yelling and wall kicking. Jon out of his exasperation exclaimed, "Certainly there is a bed that is safe and made to travel for kids like Skyler!" He drew out his idea of a bed that very night on a scrap of paper.
This led us down a path of patent searches, engineer consults, prototyping, manufacturing deals and eventually to a testable product. Through all of this, we knew we wanted to create a solution for ourselves, but what if we helped others in our same situation? We asked ourselves what it is we wanted to offer families who feel utterly exhausted and invisible. What did we want?
In our world of everything being limited, we wanted to Live without Limits.
We wanted to go on an overnight date, we wanted Sky to know how it feels to have a sleepover at his grandparents, we wanted to know we could stay in the hospital overnight without fear of Sky falling off the bed, we wanted to make memories with our kids through family vacations, we wanted a simple solution that opened the world to us. We needed a safe place for our son in the moment when his precious body needed rest.
So, in a season of travel nursing, homeschooling and everything that came with family life, we grew a business. Just like that first moment of parenting, we had no idea what we were doing. But we had a new dream and a desire to serve others.
Just like that another chapter began in our lives. We tried and failed and succeeded and celebrated. We discovered that this was a cycle we would experience over and over as a company, but this is life is it not? After several prototypes, we finally had a final product to offer to the public.
Families like ours were experiencing what it is to live without limits.
Our travel bed is now international with distributors overseas. Little did we know that sleepless night in a Florida condo would lead to impacting so many lives.
About the time the travel bed started gaining real traction, Sky was nearing the teen years. Once again, we found ourselves overcoming insurmountable odds. I will unveil that story next time.
Until then, Live without Limits.