Growing up, I hated medicine.

I couldn't swallow pills, so my mom would open capsules and mix the powder into a spoonful of grape Kool-Aid just to get me to take it.

I remember the tears.

The arguments.

The nights we sat at the kitchen table trying to get another dose down.

Sometimes I would eventually take it.

Sometimes neither of us had the energy left to fight.

By the time I felt better, we were both so exhausted from the battle that we often didn't even finish the full course.

At the time, it was simply part of growing up.

While pregnant with our son Beckham, I found myself curled up on the floor of a doctor's office lobby, exhausted, sick, and desperate for relief.

I had been waiting for hours.

As an expecting mother, I was worried about my unborn child and unsure what to do next. I wasn't comfortable with the traditional options being offered, but I also didn't know where else to turn.

So while sitting there waiting, I began searching for natural remedies online.

That's when I discovered elderberries.

At the time, I wasn't searching for a business.

I wasn't searching for a mission.

I was simply a pregnant mom trying to feel better.

When I finally got my hands on a bottle of elderberry syrup, I remember how I didn't like the taste, but I was willing to try anything.

Back then, it was just Jake, Rowyn, and I.

I had no idea that experience would one day become part of a much bigger story.

Several years later, our family was walking through a difficult season.

Jake wasn't feeling well.

Doctor appointments became routine.

Blood work, supplements, medical bills, and uncertainty filled our days.

At the same time, cold and flu season was making its way through our community, and I found myself thinking back to my own experience with elderberry syrup while pregnant with Beckham.

I remembered how much it had meant to me.

But I also remembered how terrible it tasted.

By then, we had three children.

I wasn’t interested in fighting the same battle I remembered from my own childhood.

So I decided to make my own.

I wasn't trying to start a business.

I wasn't trying to create a brand.

I simply wanted something I felt good about giving my family.

Around that same time, I found myself on my knees praying.

We were financially stretched.

I asked God to show me a way to help provide for our family.

Waiting tables.

Selling things from our home.

Anything.

I had no idea the answer was already simmering on my stove.

The first batches were made in our kitchen.

The kids were little.

Batches were made around family life.

After our three children were asleep, we'd spend evenings cooking elderberry syrup, labeling bottles at the kitchen table, and organizing orders late into the night.

Many nights, it was 2 or 3 a.m. before we finally finished cleaning up the kitchen.

A few hours later, we'd wake up, head to our full-time jobs, and do it all again.

We listened to Billy Graham sermons while cooking and organizing orders, praying over the work in front of us and trusting God with the rest.

After each batch finished simmering, I would transfer the elderberries to a mesh bag and squeeze every last drop of elderberry by hand.

We didn't have a wine press then.

Just rubber gloves, tired hands, and a determination to make the very best product we could.

Every batch taught us something new.

UPS trucks became a daily sight at our house.

Neighbors started wondering what in the world we were doing.

More than once, desperate moms knocked on our door while we were sitting down for family dinner, hoping we had elderberry syrup available for their families.

We never imagined any of this.

We simply kept saying yes to the next opportunity in front of us.

One customer became ten.

Ten became hundreds.

Hundreds became thousands.

Looking back, what felt like small acts of obedience eventually became something far bigger than we ever imagined.