Hello Everyone! As some of you may know Justin Conrow, my husband, was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease- a rare fatal progressive neurodegenerative disease. The best way to describe this beast is like having Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and ALS simultaneously. This has completely changed, shifted, and at times devastated our family. There are good days when we face this with faith, courage, and strength; other days, we honestly have no clue what we are doing. While our hope and trust is in Jesus, navigating this diagnosis can be overwhelming, unsettling, and quite frankly, there’s no word for it.

Justin is an El Paso Firefighter/EMT. This disease forced him leave the line for his well-being and the well-being of others. He is currently on transitional duty, working 40hours with the department. His specialist recommended he work for as long as he can comfortably, but if I am honest, we don’t know how long that will be. If you see him, and you ask him how he’s doing, he’ll smile and say something around the lines, “Doing good. Doing good. Getting there.”

I am his wife, and I know him.

I see him.

There are good days, and hard days. He is in pain the majority of the time in one way or another. He is beginning to choke on food, has memory issues, is starting to have gait problems, has debilitating headaches, and has to consistently sleep a significant amount of time to recover.

With all these changes happening, Justin can feel distressed. On top of everything happening to him physically, it’s a lot to take in mentally and emotionally.

We’ve been praying for several weeks, and decided Justin can benefit from a service animal. I began researching and found a local Army Veteran who has been training service animals for over 20 years. He assessed Lulu, our German Shepherd, and she passed the requirements to become Justin’s service dog. With your help, Lulu can become Justin’s mobility and emotional support animal, and if you could help us raise the funds, we would GREATLY appreciate it.

First, more than anything, we ask for your bold prayers. Everyday, we pray for MIRACULOUS healing! Every. Single. Day. We know God has the power to heal Justin, but we also know God works in mysterious ways and our definition of healing may not in the way we expect. Our hearts prayer has become: “Father, not our will but Yours be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Pray for us. For Justin, for myself, for our kids.

Secondly, if you can help fund the cost for training Lulu to be Justin’s service dog, we would greatly appreciate it.

Lastly, thank you. Thank you to everyone who is praying. To those of you who ask how we are doing, don’t stop even if our answers are the same. Thank you for rallying around us and encouraging us in this season. Truly, you all don’t know how much it means to us. God bless you.

Sincerely,

The Conrow Family.