Last Fall, our family experienced life changing news when we learned that our son, Jacob, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. At that time,we didn’t know anything about “type 1”, but we quickly learned enough to realize that we had some big changes on our hands; especially Jake.

When you have T1D, your pancreas stops producing insulin—a hormone essential to turning food into energy. This means you must constantly monitor your blood-sugar level, administer insulin, and carefully balance these insulin doses with your eating and activity just to stay alive.

The good news is that through all of this, Jake has not only remained the same wonderful son we’ve always known and loved, but he is in fact, even more amazing than ever. We couldn’t be any prouder of how our son has behaved when facing such adversity; he is inspiring to us all.

However, a great attitude doesn’t mean that Jake won’t have plenty of challenges ahead, he certainly will, along with the many other children and adults who have also been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It is for this reason we are raising money to benefit JDRF (the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). JDRF is instrumental in research aimed at improving care and finding a cure for type 1. We hope that you will take some time to learn more about type 1, as well as join us in donating a cure that has become so near and dear to us.

We can’t thank you enough for joining us in supporting such a great cause!