"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are children of one's youth. Blessed is the man and woman who fills their quiver with them."
Psalm 127: 3-5
Our Story
Hi, we're Alec & Rachel, the co-founders of Connection First Apparel.
We had pretty different plans in our minds for our marriage and our lives, but thankfully God had better ones. In 2019, after hearing at church one Sunday that there were 17,000+ children in need of a foster home in our home state, we, without much thought and a level of naivety jumped in. As we started our foster parent journey, we subsequently started our parenting journey too. Like all parents and foster parents, we went through waves of being humbled, feeling like we weren't doing enough, finding out quickly we didn't know it all, and discovering whole new levels of things to worry about. But all the while experiencing the unique and undeniable joy and privilege of raising kids.
Through our early years of foster care, the hard times and the constant uncertainty, we finally got to experience one of the greatest and most cherished moments of our lives: adopting our sons.
All the while we were raising our sons, learning to be parents seemingly on the fly, and opening our home to foster care, Rachel continued her teaching career in autism support. Her deep desire to cultivate joy extended not only in our home, but in her classroom with each and every one of her students.
After some time, we jumped back into foster care again. This time around we weren't honestly prepared and were rather overwhelmed. Most days during this time were days we just tried to get through. Nearly all of those days we were in survival mode, and there was little thriving happening for our family.
Eventually, that season of life passed. But the effects we felt didn't. It left us very critical of ourselves as parents. We met ourselves with negativity and scathing reminders of our perceived failures. We were losing our parenting joy.
But this time lead us to do two important things: be more reflective, and lean on our community. In doing these, we were reminded to give ourselves grace, reminded that it's about presences not perfection for your kids, and at the end of the day our parenting joy is found in the sweetness of the connection and relationship we have with our children.
We are thankful for those reminders, and are eager to help other parents, foster parents, and teachers who are going through those tough times to be reminded of the same.
A Letter from Us
Connection First started with something I needed to hear myself.
I'm a dad who loves his kids deeply, wants the absolute best for them, and still has plenty of moments where I wonder if I'm getting any of this right.
Connection > Correction became a reminder to slow down, protect the relationship, give grace, and remember the kind of father I want to be—especially in the moments when that's hardest.
Eventually, I started putting those reminders on apparel for myself, my family, and my friends. And somewhere along the way, I realized maybe other people would want them too.
That's really what Connection First is.
We're not here because we have parenting figured out, far from it. We're here because we all need reminders and grace.
My hope is that something we create encourages you when you wear it, encourages someone you cross paths with, and allows us together to support people doing meaningful work for parents, teachers, and foster families.
Thank you for letting this little idea become part of your story too.
Keep showing up. What you're doing matters.
— Alec
Co-founder, Connection First Apparel Co.