Our Story: We noticed Kristen was not speaking like the other children her age, so we quickly got First Steps to try and intervene. Unfortunately, progress was not made in the way that we had hoped. Right around time for Kristen to turn three, we got what seemed like a million assessments done to see why Kristen was not hitting her developmental milestones. We learned shortly thereafter that Kristen had autism. We were devastated, as we didn’t know much about autism and we feared that she may not grow up to be a “functional” member of society. Fast forward a few months later, with prayer and patience, we have learned that autism isn’t a death sentence, but with the needed help, it can be a hope sentence. We cannot predict the future, but we are hopeful with great intervention that our little Kristen will flourish to be the beautiful, smart, socially functional little girl that we know she can be. What we have also learned, is that along with patience and constant desires to learn more about autism, there is a large expense attached to having a child with special needs. Our goal is to begin an annual tradition that grows to be a revenue builder for grants, scholarships, and research.