Fighting ALS, Fueled by Faith

It’s been far too long. Christmas was busy with lots of amazing time spent with family and friends. It’s crazy how much of our focus the Christmas and New Years holidays take. Totally worth it but I feel like it takes me more time each year to recover.

2026 has come in with some relatively large changes for my wife and I. I am almost retired. Im not working and retirement status is basically a technicality as I finalize my retirement paperwork. Should be in the next couple of weeks. We are also feeling convicted to sell the house and relocate to be closer to family. In fact, the house is on the market and we are working to be patient for Gods timing in selling. Never easy. Our plan is to buy a home in Ohio where three of our kids live and then snowbird to Southern California for 3 months a year to be near our oldest. Not a bad plan we think! We are blessed to have kids that want us around and being with them is our hearts desire and where we feel led to be. Ohio also puts us closer to our broader family that we miss so much.

The hardest part of this is moving from a community and support system we have developed over the last 28 years. Ugh. Ive always believed you need to “bloom where you are planted” and blooming requires roots for the bloom to grow. Pulling up those roots is very hard, and it should be. But many things have changed in our lives with my ALS diagnosis, not working and truthfully the relationships you have change when you go through all of this. God is preparing us for His next stop for us on the journey.

As for my health, Im doing relatively well. My biggest fight is to retain the functionality of my legs. Stairs are getting harder and even medium distance walks are more challenging. The other area we are always monitoring and working on is breathing. This disease affects your diaphragm muscles and that is a big area of concern for all ALS patients. I got a favorable report a couple of weeks ago from my PT doc saying I was progressing much slower than what they expect to see and “whatever you are doing – keep doing it”.

Where God is working on me as of late is how I view my situation. It is very easy when you are losing functionality to lament what you cant do anymore. Basically looking at the negative side of things. This can steal your joy and crush your effectiveness for the work He has for you to do. I have been learning to more fully accept the grace God gives us and the generosity of those that he puts in my path. Im working hard to be in a position of being grateful for what I can do and not lamenting those things I cant. Embracing the positivity of a victorious life surrendered fully to Jesus gives us life and makes our faith contagious.

Thank you to all who have prodded me about my blog. It really means a lot to me that you are with me on this journey and I promise I wont be as long with the next post.