Three years ago, at about 2 AM on a Friday morning (August 11th), we pulled into Holland, Michigan, in moving trucks with our 22-month-old daughter, our life packed up behind us, no paychecks waiting for us, and a chiropractic office we were supposed to open in just a few days.
We had left good jobs. We had spent a large portion of our savings. We didn’t know a single person in Holland (except our landlord) and on Monday morning, August 14, 2023, we were going to unlock the doors to Rooted Family Chiropractic for the very first time.
Our first new patient was scheduled for 9:00 AM. She no-showed. We still remember her name.
For a brief moment, it was a pretty effective reality check.
Thankfully, our second patient showed up and so began Rooted.
But the story really started long before that Monday morning.
The Baby Who Changed the Direction of Our Careers
When our oldest daughter, Lydia, was born, we were living in Maine and were still relatively new chiropractors.
We had chosen a home birth and were intentional about many of the decisions we made surrounding her health, but those first few days of breastfeeding were hard.
The doctor I was working for at the time had significantly more experience in pediatric chiropractic than I did. She came to our home and adjusted Lydia during those first days of life.
What happened afterward and how it impacted our breastfeeding journey is probably a story for another day, but that experience planted something in me.
I knew I wanted to become that kind of resource for other moms.
As Lydia grew, we continued to see the impact that the choices we were making around her health could have. At the same time, we were watching so many families around us struggle. Kids were dealing with challenges surrounding sleep, digestion, sensory processing, behavior, development and chronic stress, and so many parents seemed to be looking for answers.
Then I was introduced to Dr. Tony Ebel and the Pediatric Experience (PX Docs).
I started consuming every training I could before eventually attending a live seminar, and it completely changed the trajectory of my chiropractic career.
Dr. Tony and the PX Docs community gave language to something that had already been growing in my heart. They also gave us mentorship, clinical training and, importantly, the confidence to care for families navigating more complex “Perfect Storm” cases and to communicate hope when so many parents had spent years hearing some version of wait and see.
I came home knowing this was what I was called to do and eventually, Dr. Rob caught the vision too. Somewhere in those conversations, the dream of Rooted was born.
But Why Holland?
After graduating from chiropractic school, we spent about a year and a half living in Portland, Maine.
We loved so much about Maine, especially being near the water and having access to hiking and the outdoors. But after Lydia was born, we decided to move back to Ohio to be closer to family. It didn’t take long for us to realize Ohio probably wasn’t our forever home.
We missed the water. We missed the trails. We wanted a certain lifestyle for our family and a community where we could imagine raising our kids. So, on a random weekend trip, we drove up to West Michigan and we fell in love.
Lake Michigan. The beaches. The dunes. The hiking trails. Saugatuck Dunes became one of our favorite places. I fell in love with downtown Holland almost immediately, and Dr. Rob noticed how much of the community seemed to be built around families and kids.
When we eventually started seriously talking about opening our own chiropractic practice, there wasn’t much of a question about where we wanted to do it. We would put down roots in Holland.
Why “Rooted”?
The name came from what we wanted this practice and our own lives to stand for.
First, rooted in faith. Colossians 2:7 talks about being “rooted and built up in Him,” and from the beginning, our faith has been the foundation underneath this practice. Today, “Faith First Foundation” remains one of Rooted’s core values.
Second, rooted in health. We believe that laying a healthy foundation early in life matters, and we wanted to create a place that would empower families to be active participants in their health and make informed choices for themselves and their children.
And finally, rooted in community. We didn’t want to build an office where people simply came for an appointment and left. We wanted families to know each other. We wanted kids to be excited to come in. We wanted people to feel known, supported and at home here.
Three years later, that last piece has become more than we ever could have imagined.
Taking the Leap
In April 2023, on my 28th birthday, we spent our first night away from 18-month-old Lydia and drove to Holland to look at a potential space for Rooted.
It was 1,200 square feet, half the size of our office today. But almost immediately, we could see it. We could picture Rooted there. Equally important for two people preparing to fund a business out of their savings, the rent was something we could afford.
That weekend, we confirmed the space with our landlord and then drove back to Ohio and gave 90 days’ notice at our jobs.
That was terrifying. Dr. Rob likes to say he was much more confident on the outside.
He remembers thinking, “I’m married to Kass. Things have a way of working out with her. She’s never failed at anything.”
In his words, on the inside he was “pooping his pants a little bit.”
I was even more hesitant. Leaving two good, steady incomes with a 22-month-old depending on us went against just about every risk-averse instinct I had. I liked knowing a paycheck was coming. As a mom, I felt an enormous responsibility to make sure our daughter was taken care of.
There was no investor behind Rooted. There wasn’t another paycheck coming in. We didn’t take out a big business loan.
There were our savings, some interest-free credit cards that we knew had to be paid back within a year, and a whole lot of prayer.
After a lot of praying and wrestling with the decision, we believed this was where God was calling our family. So we went.
Building Rooted on the Weekends
We took possession of the space in June and then began one of the craziest summers of our lives.
During the week, we were still working our chiropractic jobs in Ohio. Dr. Rob was seeing somewhere around 350–400 patient visits a week at the practice where he worked and I was working every afternoon.
Then Friday would come and we’d get in the car and drive roughly five hours to Holland.
We’d work on Rooted Friday night (always well past our bedtime), spend all day Saturday renovating, get up Sunday and work some more, and then usually reward ourselves with a trip to Saugatuck Dunes.
We’d hike down to the lake, spend a little time on the beach, climb back into the car and drive five hours back to Ohio and go to work Monday morning. Then we’d do it again the next weekend.
We ripped up floors, laid new ones, painted, built, installed doors and slowly watched the picture in our heads become a real place. There was blood. There was sweat. There may have been an argument or two between the two of us.
Oh, and we were scrappy. Our changing table and the metal chairs you see in Rooted today came from Facebook Marketplace. Other furniture was inexpensive and ordered online.
We knew our savings would only stretch so far, so we saved wherever we could, but there were certain things we weren’t willing to skimp on.
One of our biggest investments was our INSiGHT nervous system scanning technology because we knew that directly affected our ability to provide the kind of neurologically focused chiropractic care we wanted Rooted to be known for. We didn’t need the fanciest furniture, but we did need the tools to serve people well.
From Ohio to Opening Day in About 72 Hours
On Thursday, August 10, 2023, we finished seeing patients at our jobs in Ohio around 6:00 PM.
We had dinner with our family, climbed into our moving trucks and headed north.
We arrived in Holland around 2 AM on Friday.
Friday and Saturday were spent unloading our lives and Sunday, we put the finishing touches on Rooted.
Monday, August 14, at 9:00 AM, we opened.
We had done the Ottawa County Fair in July and managed to schedule around a dozen new patients for our first week. As you now know, Patient #1 didn’t show up.
Patient #2 did. Even cooler? Two patients who came through our doors on that very first day are still part of the Rooted family today.
The Part of Starting a Business You Don’t See on Instagram
Those first few months were scary. We had moved somewhere we didn’t know a soul and started a practice from zero.
There were days when the schedule was sparse. We spent weekends setting up at craft shows, community events and screenings just trying to meet people and tell them what we were doing. We posted on social media. We boosted posts. We talked to anyone who would listen.
Rooted grew. Slowly at first. Neither of us took a paycheck for nearly five months.
There were very real conversations about whether Dr. Rob should get another job while I continued trying to grow Rooted.
We had a toddler to provide for. Our savings weren’t infinite and the bills didn’t care that we had taken a leap of faith.
There were moments when we wondered whether West Michigan would understand what we were trying to build, but we kept showing up.
We kept serving and we kept trusting that if this was where God had called us, He would provide.
And boy, did He provide.
And Then Life Got Even Crazier
About two months after opening Rooted, we found out we were expecting our second daughter. I had taken a test on a Thursday night before my first ever Birth Workshop at Rooted and got a negative. I just had a feeling, so Monday at lunch, I tested again and it was positive.
We were stoked but then the reality of morning sickness, while trying to grow a business and raise a toddler set in. I spent most of November and December incredibly sick.
I was miserable but couldn’t let it slow me down. There were patients to care for during the week, screening events on weekends and plenty of moments spent throwing up in between while trying to keep the vibes high.
By January, things were improving and Rooted was growing enough that we hired our first Care Advocate. After an unexpected change with that first hire, another team member joined us in March and became an important part of helping Rooted grow through that first year.
Then came July. Our landlord approached us about taking over the 1,200-square-foot space attached to ours. Expanding had always been the dream and was even a conversation with the landlord before we signed the lease. We just hadn’t expected the opportunity quite that quickly and I was 39 weeks pregnant.
So we essentially told him, Can we have a baby first and get back to you?
On July 9, I went into Rooted, had pelvic floor therapy, adjusted a patient, handled some back-end office work and then went for a hike. At 12:45 PM I had my first contraction, so we had our care advocate cancel the afternoon. Rory was born at 4:10 PM. Dr. Rob canceled the following day and was back to work 2 days later.
Growing a Business While Growing Our Family
Rory was only two weeks old when she attended her first screening event with me at Nature’s Market.
By that point, the practice had become busy enough that Dr. Rob was struggling to adjust our existing practice members while also handling all of the new patient exams himself. So at 2 weeks postpartum I was back at Rooted to do new patient intakes and scans. Rory came too.
She’d hang out nearby in her swing or held by patients while Mom worked. Lydia was often somewhere in the office too.
This is one part of our story that we look back on with both gratitude and some complicated emotions.I never really took a true maternity leave and there’s definitely some mom guilt that comes with admitting that.
At the time, it felt like Rooted needed both of us. Looking back, Dr. Rob has even said he wishes he could have taken more off Dr. Kass’s plate and given her more time to simply recover and be with Rory. That’s one of the tensions we’ve learned comes with raising children while building a business.
People often tell us how cool it is that our girls get to be at Rooted with us so much.
And it is.
It is an enormous blessing, but having your children physically beside you isn’t always the same thing as being fully present with them.
Sometimes they’re at Rooted while we’re focused on caring for other families. Sometimes we’re home with them, but there is an email that needs answered, a decision that needs made or a to-do list humming in the back of our minds.
There are days when the mom guilt is real and I will be the firat to admit that I haven’t mastered the balance. So when the guilt sets in, then we step back and realize what our girls are getting to witness. They’re watching their parents work hard for something they believe in. They’re watching us serve our community. They’re seeing that building something meaningful takes sacrifice. They’re watching us trust God when we don’t know exactly how something is going to work out. And they’re growing up surrounded by an incredible community of people who have embraced them, toddler tantrums and all. (And believe us, there have been toddler moments).
At one point, Lydia and another kiddo managed to lock themselves inside one of the rooms. Another time, Lydia wandered into a room and got suspiciously quiet. We found her covered in lotion, along with the walls, the chairs, the door, and everything else in the room.
That’s what we mean when we say our girls have grown up at Rooted.
Lydia was our first baby. Rooted was our second. And Rory was our third.
In a lot of ways, all three have grown up together.
1,200 Square Feet Became 2,400
Shortly after Rory was born, we decided to say yes to the expansion. Over Thanksgiving, we closed Rooted for nine days and completely renovated the adjoining space. Baby strapped to Dr. Kass, Lydia “helping” with painting, and a week of complete exhaustion.
Our little 1,200-square-foot office became the 2,400-square-foot Rooted that our practice members know today.
Somewhere in the beautiful chaos, something happened that neither of us can pinpoint to an exact date. The office just…filled. Dr. Rob describes it as feeling like one day we were seeing four people during a three-hour shift, and then he blinked and there was an entire community around us.
The waiting room was suddenly full, the playroom always bustling. Kids, moms, and full families were everywhere.
And we looked around and thought
This. This is what we dreamed of.
Three Years Later
Last week, one of our Care Advocates was on vacation, so my mom came in to help at Rooted.
She went home for lunch and told my stepdad something along the lines of: “There are at least 10 or 15 kids running around that place at any given time.”
We couldn’t help but smile at that, because three years ago… our first patient didn’t show up.
Today, the office is bustling with families and kids throughout our shifts. We have three incredible Care Advocates helping us serve our practice members. AND BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Next month, we’ll welcome our first associate doctor to Rooted.
Last week, we’re handing out special Well Adjusted Club shirts to practice members who have been with us since our very first year. When we counted how many we needed, the number surprised us. 38!!
38 people who took a chance on the new chiropractors in town during that first year and are still walking through our doors today. We had to order a few more shirts than we expected to but we’ve never been happier to spend the money.
What We’re Most Proud Of
There are plenty of things we’re proud of after three years. The growth. The expansion. The team. The number of families who have walked through our doors.
But those aren’t what we’re most proud of. It’s the people and the relationships that have always meant the most to us. It’s the community that exists inside these walls.
It’s getting to be a place where families looking for a natural, nervous-system-focused approach can feel heard, ask questions, and make informed choices about their health.
For the families who walk through our doors feeling overwhelmed by what their child is going through, we want Rooted to be a place where they hear something they may not have heard enough of:
Hope.
Not promises.
Not guarantees.
But hope.
Hope that someone will listen and take the time to look deeper. Hope that they have a team in their corner. We’re parents too and we know that when your child is struggling with ANYTHING, it breaks your heart. We want to be that safe place where you feel heard, loved, and cared for.
Those relationships and opportunities to pour into families in every season of life are why we do what we do.
Dr. Rob has always said throughout this journey that if we simply keep doing the right thing for people and serving them well, we don’t have to obsess over what happens next. We can do the work in front of us and trust God with the rest.
To West Michigan: Thank You.
To every person who has trusted us with your family: thank you.
To the people who came to Rooted when the waiting room wasn’t full yet: thank you.
To the businesses that let two chiropractors they barely knew set up a table and talk to people: thank you.
To everyone who shared one of our posts, told a friend about us, came to a workshop, left a review, invited us into your business or simply encouraged us along the way: thank you.
To the families who have embraced our girls growing up alongside this practice: thank you.
And to the 40 practice members wearing Well Adjusted Club shirts this week because you’ve been here since year one: you have no idea how much that means to us.
We came to Holland knowing almost no one and the West Michigan community welcomed our family with open arms.
Three years later, Holland isn’t simply where we opened our business. It’s home.
So, What’s Next?
When I asked Dr. Rob what he hopes Rooted looks like three years from now, his first answer surprised us. If it looked exactly like it does today, he’d already be proud.
What Rooted has already become has exceeded what we imagined when we were covered in paint and sawdust renovating 1,200 square feet on the weekends 3 summers ago.
But if our community continues asking for more, we’re ready to keep answering.
We hope to add doctors and team members who believe deeply in this mission. We hope to reach more families throughout West Michigan. We especially hope to continue growing our ability to serve families navigating complex Perfect Storm cases who are desperately looking for answers, support and hope.
We hope that three years from now there are hundreds of people who can say they’ve called Rooted home for years.
We hope our girls continue running through this space and maybe eventually can give the New Patient Tours.
We hope the playroom stays loud and that the waiting room stays full of conversations between families who have become friends.
Our promise to you is that we will never become so focused on growing Rooted that we forget why we wanted it to grow in the first place: To serve people. To love families well. To give hope.
And most importantly– to glorify God through all of it.
Rooted started as a dream between two young chiropractors, a few interest free credit cards, and a LOT of prayer.
What God has done with that leap of faith over the last three years is more than we could have imagined. Rooted in faith. Rooted in health. Rooted in community.
All glory to God for the first three years and forevermore.
We cannot wait to see where He takes Rooted next.
Happy 3rd Birthday, Rooted. 🤍
Written by Dr. Kass with input from Dr. Rob
Rooted Family Chiropractic
Holland, Michigan
