A brief back story:
My amazing husband and best friend has been a state trooper for the Utah Highway Patrol for 15 years. When we were first married we were both poor, young, college students trying to complete our bachelor's degrees and it wasn't long before we had a new baby girl to love and cuddle. Soon after that, the company he was working for closed its doors. He felt a lot of pressure to provide for our new little family. In looking at a new career, he disclosed to me that he had always felt like he should go into police work. I had a hard time adjusting to that idea. I come from a family of college educators and professors, many of whom have PhDs. And no guns in the house. It was strange (and scary to me) to think that there would multiple guns in our house and a husband toting guns and wearing body armor every day... So foreign to me.
And I worried about his Spanish Translation degree going to waste. What about those opportunities? At one point we were considering moving to Key West so that he could translate Cuban radio transmissions for the government. That sounded a little better (and less scary) than being a police wife...
He worked hard, we prayed a lot, and he hired on with UHP. There's much more to our story than that. But looking back on our lives we see God's hand guiding us every step of the way. We knew that his career would not be lucrative, but we chose this path for different reasons and it has shaped our lives for the better. Just one example: His job led us to become foster parents where we were able to add to our family through adoption - two beautiful girls that were meant to be with our family. I'm convinced we would not have found them otherwise.
Fast forward to today. The UHP has become our family. Those men and women in brown have demonstrated overwhelming support for us during this difficult time. From freezer meals, to gift cards, visits in the hospital, taking my hubby out on bike rides for stress-relief, calling and checking in on us, allowing my husband the flexibility to take the time off to care for me and my family during my brain surgery and recovery...
His Lieutenant went above and beyond to help us. He contacted an organization called the Honoring Heroes Foundation whose primary purpose is "To protect and provide for fallen and wounded Troopers and for the well being of the dependents and employees of the Utah Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety." Their vision is much broader and nobler than this and you can read more here. The financial assistance that the Honoring Heroes Foundation provided us with was unexpected and very welcome. As you can imagine, running a household of 8 and meeting everyone's basic needs is difficult enough on a trooper's salary. Throw medical bills on top of that and the financial burden is quite heavy. The HHF helped ease that burden in some quite unexpected ways. But, for me, it's not just about the money. These are people who hardly know me, but they support my husband, value his tremendous contribution to the safety of our community, and are genuinely concerned for our family's well-being. This love and support I feel from my UHP family really is overwhelming in so many ways.
The following is a short video produced by the Honoring Heroes Foundation telling our story:
This video is a news clip from KSL - just one of the many, unexpected, and amazing ways theHonoring Heroes Foundation has stepped in to help our family:
1 Comment
Sherrie Robinson
7/19/2016 02:22:41 pm
I'm glad to see such positive things being said about our Police officers & seeing all the good things they do on a daily basis. People are always looking for the negative & the good gets pushed aside. Thank you for setting up a website that let's people see the good
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December 2020
About MeMy name is Andrea. I'm a Mormon mom in my 40's and I am fighting a rare type of brain cancer: Anaplastic Astrocytoma. |