A Heartfelt "Thank you"

Today as Renae and I work on the letter that we are going to be sending to prospective donors I was writing a paragraph covering Faith's hospitalization in May 2011. When she was hospitalized at Rivendell Behavioral Health Services Hospital    http://rivendellbehavioral.com/    we learned after her inprocessing that Tricare did not cover the expenses occured by us for travel, food, and hotel while she was hospitalized for three weeks. These totalled over $2500. Not getting her help was not an option. She could not stay overnight to complete the inpatient treatment program because of her anxiety, it would have not worked. So the wonderful people at Rivendell came up with a customized plan just for Faith allowing her inpatient treatment but also allowing her to be picked up by her mom after dinner to stay the night with her. Because of their compassion and caring we were able to get Faith Help without scarring her for life. Here at Fort Campbell we have the 101st Airborne Association   http://www.screamingeagle.org/ . This great association came to our rescue and helped us help Faith. Thank you's sometimes are not enough. As I promised CSM St. Louis, who leads the Association and personally called to check on Faith, I intend to make sure everyone is aware of them and the wonderful things the former soldiers of the 101st do to take care of each other. Please take the time to click on the link provided here or at the bottom of the page under Favorites and visit their website and pass the word around. They are selling stones that can be personalized to raise money. These stones will be placed in front of the Division Headquarters around the memorial there. Take a look. Organizations like this are what allow us soldiers to do what we do. They ensure we are taken care of no matter what or when we need help. Thank you 101st Airborn Association and Rivendell!!!

Faith's Story for Bio Page

This is the Biography that is going to be posted on the Little Angels Service Dogs website. Here is the link if you want to check it out:

http://www.littleangelsdogtraining.net/

Faith is a 10 year old from a military family living at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. When her father was stationed there in the summer of 2006 her world was turned upside down when she was unable to go to school. Attacks of unknown origin would overcome her and cause her to lose control and have complete and embarrassing meltdowns in public and at school. She was diagnosed with Mood Disorder, Bipolar disorder, and severe anxiety. She had to be homeschooled for first grade and she started seeing a Doctor and began taking medication and was finally able to go back to school for second and third grade. She was very successful, earning student of the month both years and finishing in the top five of her grade in reading counts, a program to track how many books the students read. She also won the Science Fair in third grade and was able to take her project to the county show. Unfortunately, towards the end of third grade the medications stopped working and she was hospitalized for three weeks. She has since been unable to return to school and is now being homeschooled for fourth grade.

Faith loves to go to school and her inability to attend school is one of the issues that continues to fuel her anxiety. She is so afraid of not being able to control her feelings or herself at school again that she starts having anxiety attacks on the way to school or even in class sometimes. Her Doctor is the person who first recommended a service dog. She said a couple of her patients were able to completely come off of all of their medications once they got a dog. Her parents were unaware that psychiatric service dogs even existed. Faith hopes that when she gets a dog that it will help her return to school and give her the courage, support, and unconditional love she needs to leave her home, her safe haven, and go out into the public like a normal child. She tells us everyday how she cannot wait until she gets her dog.

First Blog

Renae and I are starting this Blog to help bring awareness to what we call a "hidden disability". This disability is mood disorders or mental issues that people cannot see on a person so they find it hard to understand these disabilities. Most people with mood disorders are very good at hiding them from the public and show all the symptoms at home or in their "safe havens". Our daughter Faith has a "hidden disability" and we intend to share her story to help bring awareness to these disabilities and some of the awesome resources and people we have encountered to help us provide for Faith and help her live with her disability. We are also going to ask all of our friends and family to help pass the word so as to help us raise money to purchase Faith a psychiatric service dog. While doing this we also help to bring awareness to the awesome military spouse Katie Gonzalez, founder of Little Angels Service Dogs, who will be training Faith's dog and who has helped numerous other clients by providing psychiatric service dogs for them. Please help us with this blog by passing it on to your friends, adding to it, or helping us find stories of people who have service dogs or know someone who does. The more awareness we raise about service dogs and how much they help will hopefully help get them covered by our insurance companies. They sure do cost less than all the medications they want to put patients on however none of them want to pay for the dogs. Thanks a lot and chat with you soon.

Kris and Renae