Nature Inspired Story

Our journey has inspired the products we craft.

HOW NATURE INSPIRED CAME TO BE

We believe everything happens for a reason. While the more challenging things in life are sometimes difficult to understand, we feel they are stepping stones that help guide us in specific directions. So, what on Earth guided us to make soap?

A few years ago, we told our family and friends we would start making soap, and not one person believed us. By this time, we already had to deal with chronic illnesses, having a child with multiple disabilities, tearing down our house and rebuilding it due to toxic mold, and trying to raise a family in an entirely toxic world. These were enough reasons for us to cultivate the idea of making real change in our lives while hoping to inspire others from our story.

PLANTING OUR ROOTS

We purchased our dream property in 2014, which had enough land so we could eventually grow food to support our family, raise animals, and establish a prairie so we could enjoy nature while giving back. The house needed a lot of love, which we were happy to provide, knowing that this would be our family's forever home.

In 2016, our first child was born. When the nurse placed the baby on Ashley's chest, we were excited to find out we had a sweet baby boy. We immediately noticed something extraordinary about him: he was born with Down Syndrome. At that moment, our emotions of fear were overcome with a fierceness to support, protect, and love him unconditionally. Navigating through such a fast-paced world with a child with a disability has changed us for the better. Just like we learn from being in nature, we need to be still and remember everything happens in time when it's right, and when those things do happen, they are even more beautiful.

Our strong, passionate, adorable daughter was born a few years later. Her eagerness to learn and help has always been inspiring. The way she learned to communicate with her brother, who is non-verbal, is remarkable.

NAVIGATING OUR HEALTH

In 2021, our family of four started dealing with various health issues that at first seemed unrelated due to the vast differences in symptoms. After several months of working with an integrative doctor, we had testing that concluded we were getting sick from toxic mold in our home. The diagnosis was a surprise, considering our house had no visible mold or strange smells and was mainly updated. Getting to the root cause of our issues was a relief.

It turns out the extent of the mold in our home was much worse than we thought. We had to tear down and rebuild our entire house, paying everything out of pocket since our insurance policy didn't cover mold. Not able to afford a contractor to do all the work, we had to rebuild most of it on our own under the guidance of a licensed contractor.

It took two years of living in a camper, countless weekends spent with the kids at the hardware store, and having to remind ourselves daily that we would get through this, to finally move into our new home.

LEARNING TO HEAL

Dealing with health issues takes time. To heal your body properly, you must start looking at everything that can make you sick. With an ever-growing list of toxicities, navigating through this world can be a challenge. Keep in mind healing is a process and takes time. After almost three years, we are still very active in our healing journey. Here are some steps we took to start the healing process:

Get out of an environment or remove items that are making you sick.
Remove all toxic beauty, cleaning, and household products and replace them with cleaner, more natural options.
Switch to all organic, whole foods whenever possible.
Support our body's detox pathways so our bodies can work to eliminate toxins like mold, heavy metals, and chemicals.
Work with an integrative provider to provide additional treatment options.
Find people or groups that have gone through similar situations that can help offer support.

AN IDEA EMERGED

Each of these hardships has led us to slow down and reflect on the things we value most in life: loving and supporting our children, learning from nature and only taking what we can give back, helping others, and supporting our bodies to ensure we can live a healthy, vibrant life.

All these things aligned and helped cultivate the idea of Nature Inspired. We felt a need for a truly all-natural company that hopes to inspire and help others live a simpler, more natural life.

While we may seem like just a soap company, we hope to build a community of people who can be a resource for families battling mold illness or those looking for ways to provide additional support for their loved ones with a disability. Part of our healing journey and advocating for our son with Autism and Down Syndrome has been connecting with like-minded people with an eagerness to make real change in this world.

We would love to connect with you. Please reach out; we would happily offer whatever guidance we can. We are still actively working on healing our bodies and navigating through a world with a child with a disability, but the more information we can help to get out there, the better.

Whether you're on a healing journey, supporting a loved one, or just here to check out our locally handcrafted products, we are thankful you found your way to Nature Inspired.

With Love,

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THE STORY OF THE TREE

The tree in our logo represents our passion for nature and our mission to create only pure, natural products. But it's more than that. It also symbolizes Down Syndrome; the three branches of the tree represent the three 21st chromosomes. The arrow represents how families or communities can rise up and help people with Down Syndrome live thriving, fulfilled lives. We promise to advocate for people with disabilities while making our products with love and spreading positivity to our customers.