Okay, so the long short version is in a struggle to understand Autism better and find resources to help my own children who were diagnosed as HF, I learned there weren't very many resources. I was living in Xenia, Ohio and locally there was just NO help or education! It was one of the most draining, confusing, and frustrating experiences I have ever had as a mother. The best advice one of our psychiatrists (who is wonderful) could give me was find other families like mine and see what they do, what they know and what services they are getting. To my surprise I quickly learned that all of those families were just as lost, scared and confused as i was, except they had their diagnosis for years. This only added to my devastation. To make matters worse most of these children like mine were in typical schools with very little or not enough services. I was scared but I set out to learn as much about the condition as my brain could handle. Then I started to share that casually with people in passing. Over and over again people kept suggesting that I should speak to people more often and more frequently. I laughed it off at first. Then I thought, how could I change the life of a family that had no services, no resources and no education on how to help their child? THAT! That thought is what moved me to want to do something but, I still didn't know what or how. Furthermore I was an average parent just trying to make ends meet (So no EXTRA money).

One summer in an effort to come up with the remaining balance my 5 girls needed to spend the whole summer with their grandparents we decided to hold a bake sale at the end of our driveway. As customers approached our driveway to get their baked goods most of them took special notice of the Autism awareness garden flag in the front yard and somehow it motivated them to ask questions. I spoke with so many families who all were extremely open to the info. They would say things like “wow I had no idea,” I need to do things different with my grandchild or child.” I guess word got around and weeks after my bake sale strangers knocked on my door asking for more info about autism and how they could help their own child. I had become without trying the local info center. I started out unlicensed as BEHELP. This year I renamed the non-profit Unpuzzled inc. because of my goal to take the confusion out of autism for families and the community. I still found myself being in financial pinches here and there even when I continued to fund raise and give money away. I had tons of suggestions to just become a profitable business but I wouldn't do it because I felt like it would take away from my mission. One day, I had an epiphany and it just came to me. Why not use a portion from my profitable business to continue to fund my non-profit. That my dear friends was the birth of my home bakery Soul Sweets

(Sweets from the soul).

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