Tuesday, March 22, 2016

“Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose!”

As always I have been less than stellar in keeping up with posting blog entries. I have not however been resting on my laurels that is for sure. It seems that over the past few months I have been on fire with a renewed fever in my heart to carry a message to anyone that will listen and share it with others. The fact that so many people have come out and helped support me in my travels and then in the project to get the trailer going was absolutely breathtaking.

“Grateful souls focus on the happiness and abundance present in their lives and this in turn attracts more abundance and joy towards them.” 
― Stephen Richards

When I blogged last I thanked everyone that took part in the fundraising project to secure the trailer. That trailer is going to allow me to carry more info and stay on the road for longer periods of time and longer trips across the country. Since the last entry I have been a very busy person traveling around New England getting my medical moved out of Providence and up to the West Roxbury VA system where now all of my specialist and primary care will be able to communicate much better. This has already started to pay off better for me in allowing me to concentrate all my appointments around one timeframe and place.

Not only does this improve my care but it streamlines the time spent hanging out at doctors offices allowing me to better serve other veterans and people in need. I am so grateful that I am given an opportunity to share my life with so many others and hopefully make a difference in their lives. Mike and I have been able to go back to MCI Framingham where he was raised as a puppy and visit with the staff and inmates along with Planet Dog who will be doing a piece on the amazing work the prisons are doing with Americas VetDogs changing lives. Mike was able to meet up with his weekend puppy raiser and show off how he has grownup but still remembers how important they were in his life. 

To be able to share these time with these families has been such a great feeling for all of us. It is not a common experience to be able to have times like this and for us to have both the prison and then the weekend raiser time all in one day was mind boggling. I can not say thank you enough to all those people for their generosity in helping give me my life back through Mike.

We (Mike & I ) went to WestPort CT where we had a great meet and greet with the Choice Pet and Star 99.9 Radio Station guys. There are so many great organizations out there helping to raise awareness and money for nonprofits like VetDogs. I am honored everyday to be asked to help out by telling my story of how these dogs helped save my life. How Iris my first Service Dog helped steer the doctors to the right diagnose allowing them to change my meds and get my drivers license back. So many ways my life has been changed I could go on for pages and pages. Oh wait I have over time feel free to go back in time and read past blog entries to see some of how things have changed. 

As I sign off tonight please keep my brother in arms in your prayers. I got a call yesterday while I was in Boston telling me that Brian was going to have to have brain surgery. Brian has been featured in my blog also. Due to circumstances beyond his control there were issues that were going to be major obstacles. One of the greatest gifts of my disability is the ability to help others sometimes. I was able to jump in the truck and come to Virginia and help for a bit. Brian will have his surgery in a couple days and everything looks like it will be fine. Please keep him and his family in your prayers during this time.