• My husband suffers irreparable lung and nerve damage from his military service before, during and after the Persian Gulf War. Our only income is his disability.
• During his military service he deployed on numerous humanitarian missions. While only required to work 8 hours a day, he routinely gave 18 to 20 hours a day providing medical care for the needy. He delivered countless babies, performed numerous field surgeries and provided routine health care for those in many third world countries.
• When not deployed, he provided volunteer instruction in life saving techniques through the Red Cross, the Boy Scouts and local child care agencies. After leaving the military he routinely provided assistance to a religious community not far from our home until his health deteriorated to the point where he could no longer provide assistance.
• He regularly helps our neighbors with chores due to many of them being elderly and/or disabled themselves. Even now he will go out of his way to help those in need, even though he is in severe pain and audibly wheezes after walking just a few feet.
• He organized a nonprofit organization for citizen activism in protection of their property rights and ran it until others could take over.
• We had to take in our daughter and adopt her 4 children under 5 years old due to severe abuse.  The older children have had to receive counseling. In order for us to take custody of our grandchildren, DHR required us to add on to our manufactured home. We were in the process of building our dream home when this started but now have had to divert what little money we have to raise the children. The beginnings of our home, rests about 50 feet from where we live now and has weeds growing over it.
• We have a farm on the end of a dead end road in the country and routinely end up with stray dogs from people dumping them. At first we took them to the humane society only to watch the poor animals be put to sleep due to overcrowding. We began building kennels and keeping the dogs and try to find homes for them. We had to stop building the kennels when we took in the children. We are struggling to feed all the mouths both human and animal.
• I thought we would enjoy a peaceful life after seeing my husband give so much of himself to helping others and sacrificing his health to protect freedom both in the US and in other countries. I was mistaken. We need help to meet the needs of our grandchildren, the unwanted stray animals and to put us back on track in taking care of a selfless American.