“We are in the process of downsizing and moving from a 2700 square foot house in Fairhope to a 1300 square foot apartment in Daphne. We are simplifying so we can enjoy days like this more.”

“We have another service dog in training and two other kids. It is eight of us in three bedrooms.”

“We have given up half of our belongings and are more organized. We sold all of our furniture and have smaller beds. We aren’t fully transitioned yet but getting rid of stuff feels so good and we are focusing on needs instead of wants and what we need out of life. That is being together as a family.”

“We partner with Healing for Heroes that partners rescue dogs with veterans. We train them with kids with special needs and our oldest son is highly functioning autism. We have a puppy we are training too. In August, this dog was scheduled to be put down. He weighed about 30 pounds and is up to 70 pounds now. Veterans work with the dog and the dog learns what he is supposed to do. There is a lot of healing in the training and they are rescuing each other. I have a traumatic brain injury and have been in a wheelchair for about a year and a half. I spent the last year at Ft. Benning to understand my new limitations and everything I had going on. I was gone from my family for almost a year and coming back and transitioning would have been too much but having him helped me through it. I can go in a restaurant and relax because he is always watching. If there is anything I need to be alert too, he will let me know. When my legs start twitching, I get him to jump on my lap and give me a hug, the pressure helps my legs and keeps them from twitching and rattling off my wheelchair. The brain injury came when I was injured by a roadside bomb serving in Iraq. We thought it was a minor head injury but it has progressed. In 2015 I had a series of mini-strokes and they attributed it to the brain injury.”

“He was initially right side paralyzed but gained the use of his right arm and some of his right leg. He had another stroke and started back from square one. He now has most of the use of his arms and his speech.”

“There are still daily challenges. I start each day saying and writing my kids’ names and birthdays so I don’t forget. My eyes don’t track left to right, so I have a hard time reading. I am in graduate school trying to work on a masters in nonprofit management so we can start a nonprofit to help other people. I struggle with school because of the reading issues. My biggest inspiration has been my autistic son and the difficulties he has faced being on the autistic spectrum. He is much better today. It doesn’t matter what your difficulty is, you can overcome it.”

“How have you handled this? As a wife and mom, this is a lot to adjust to.”

“My faith, my church family and other military families keep me going. He was a volunteer fireman in Fairhope and the fire department has given us so much support from changing the light bulbs in our vaulted ceilings to helping us cut the grass and move. Feeling loved and cared for goes a long way. God doesn’t promise life won’t be hard, but he does walk you through it. We have been through a lot the last four years and began to pray that instead of changing our circumstances, God change our perspective on it. He has answered that prayer 1,000 times over. We can see our purpose and why were are in this place.”

“I do prison ministry and talk to prisoners once a month. I did it before the chair but I have been able to reach more people because I am in the chair. I kept asking for God to use me and he has given me a platform to speak from. People listen to me more while I am sitting down than I ever did when I was standing up. We still go through our tough moments. Coming off of active duty, we lost 75 percent of our income. She can’t work because I need someone to care for me full time and we homeschool two of our children. We kept asking God how were are going to survive. One of the answers was downsizing and I thought the kids were going to hate losing much of we had, but they are excited because I can roll into their rooms now and play video games and hang out in their rooms. That is all they care about. We have the best kids. I am a lucky man.”