While Rare Disease Day is global in scope, for Austin 1st its impact is profoundly local. RDD represents awareness in action, through classrooms, sports, proclamations, and community-wide participation.

We’ve learned something powerful on this journey: When we help others, we heal too. Austin’s 1st Christmas started with a simple desire: to honor our little boy during a season that felt heavier than we could put into words.

June 27, 2025. Austin would have turned 12 today. Twelve. That number hits hard. It’s a number that reflects so much more than time—it represents growth, milestones, and memories we never got to make. As parents, birthdays should be days of laughter, balloons, cakes, and joyful chaos. But when your child is no longer physically here, birthdays become something else entirely. They become a beautiful ache—a collision of celebration and grief.

3rd annual Aces is approaching! Recent A1F updates & a deeper dive into the story behind the ⁠Austin 1st Foundation⁠ — a mission born from love, loss, & an unshakable drive to make a difference. After losing their son Austin to a rare genetic disease known as UBA-5, the Terlings turned their grief into purpose, founding an organization dedicated to raising awareness, funding research, & supporting families navigating the unknowns of rare diseases.

I don’t understand. That hindsight thing. God is using Austin’s story—through the Austin 1st Foundation—to help others.

Lindsey and I tried to live everyday with Austin as if his tomorrow wouldn’t come. We would talk about ways we could live in the present whi

As you let a part of my soul fly- feel the comfort of my heavenly hug as you cry and again say good-bye. Although you can’t see me, I can...

Happy 10th Birthday, Austin! - I’ve always had a weird thing with numbers.

WIDOW A wife that loses a husband. WIDOWER A husband that loses a wife. ORPHAN A child that loses their parents. UNKNOWN There is no word...