I’d like to start off today by just saying thank you to those of you who tune into the podcast or read these show notes each week. If you are new here, today I am not going to be talking about Pinterest, but diving into some of my personal life. If you’re not quite ready for that, go back and check out episode 100 of the podcast. You’ll find the top ten Simple Pin podcast episodes there and that should keep you occupied for a while.

Note –>  If you’re moved to donate to children in foster care, Simple Pin is hosting a campaign with Together We Rise to raise $10,000. Consider giving here. The campaign ends December 3, 2019

You may have listened to episode 27, The Simple Pin Story, which talks all about how I got started and episode 62, where I talk about building a team. If you haven’t, those are two good ones to listen to that will help you understand a little more about Simple Pin and who I am as a business owner.

For this episode, I’m going to talk about something really personal: what’s been happening behind the scenes while SPM has grown tremendously. At times it’s felt as if SPM had a life of its own to help sustain our family during what have been some of the saddest times in our life. I’ve hinted at it a few times in our newsletter, but today I want to share the whole story with you. (Because this is public, I’m not going to use the little girl’s name who this really involves, but will just refer to her as ‘Baby Girl’).

The Start of Simple Pin and Life Transitions

I first had the idea of starting Simple Pin in 2014. When I talk about the business and how it has grown, I usually reference two events:

* my daughter being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes about nine months after starting Simple Pin

* (about four months later) when we decided to grow Simple Pin into a full-fledged company and not just a side hustle.

That defines 2014 but it doesn’t share what happened next.

In May of 2015, I had 8 part-time team members. We had finally adjusted to life with a diabetic and we were doing well. We were about to make yet another change and switch my daughter to an insulin pump. If you know me in real life, you know that the way to throw a wrench into my life is to switch up what’s normal for me. I’m not fond of transition. We were able to make the transition to the pump smoothly, thanks to the amazing people that we know in the diabetic community.

Our Fostering Story

Finding Out About Baby Girl

A few weeks later, we were at a friend’s house, discussing transitions in life. They knew all about change because they had recently started fostering two children. I knew that fostering wasn’t easy. Having kids enter your family can be messy – it’s tough, heart-work, and every day can feel like swimming upstream. All of a sudden, my struggles with change in my daughter’s diabetes seemed petty. This family was doing deep community work.

In the middle of the conversation, one of the foster children mentioned to me that their mom was pregnant with baby #8. These kids had come from a pretty horrible situation and I just remember thinking,

Could there be any worse situation to bring a child into this world?

As I left that day and was driving home, I heard a voice. For me, as a part of the Christian community, that voice is always the Lord. And the voice clearly said,

You should foster that baby.

I can remember the exact spot I was at when I heard that and my response was,