139 – Lyle Liechty’s Daughter with Down Syndrome Inspired Him To Help Create DADS (Dads Appreciating Down Syndrome)

Transcript:

Tom Couch: Special, thanks to horizon therapeutics for sponsoring today’s special father’s network. Dad to dad podcast, horizon therapeutics believes that science and compassion must work together to transform lives. That’s why they work tirelessly to research, develop and bring forward medicines for people living with rare and rheumatic diseases.

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Lyle Liechty: don’t ever give a and be patient because it, things will take longer, but they will accomplish things that you either want them to or things they may not. You may not have even thought about it.

That they enjoy like art or music or something that wasn’t in your mind, but they are now for we’ll do it. In general, I would say never give up because life is a marathon. It’s not a sprint.

Tom Couch: That’s our guests this week.  a father of three, including a daughter with down syndrome. We’ll hear Lyle’s family story.

And about his work with dads, which stands for dads, appreciating down syndrome. It’s a group that offers support for dads of kids with downs. That’s all on this special father’s network, dad to dad podcast. Here’s our host David Hirsch.

David Hirsch: Hi, and thanks for listening to the dad to dad podcast, fathers, mentoring, fathers of children with special needs presented by the special fathers network.

Tom Couch: Father’s network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs through our personalized matching process. New fathers with special needs children connect with mentor fathers in a similar situation. It’s a great way for dads to support dads, to find out more, go to 21st century dads.com.

David Hirsch: And if your dad looking for help or would like to offer help, we’d be honored to have you join our closed Facebook group. Please go to facebook.com groups and search dad to dad

Tom Couch: and now let’s listen to this fascinating conversation between  and David Hirsch.

David Hirsch: I’m thrilled to be talking today with Lyle liechty T of Carmel, Indiana, who is in charge of business development at us DTO and as the father of three, including a daughter with down syndrome while thank you for taking the time to do a podcast interview for this special,

Lyle Liechty: there’s no way.

Well, I’m excited to join you and thank you for having me. I really.

David Hirsch: You and your wife, Susan had been married for 30 years and of the proud parents of three children, Christopher 27, Claire 22 and middle child Caroline twenty-five who has down syndrome. Let’s start with some background. Tell me, where did you go?

Lyle Liechty: I grew up in a small town called Berne, Indiana, and it’s south of Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was named after Bern, Switzerland, the Swiss German community.

David Hirsch: And I remember you telling me that. Your birth parents were different than the parents that raised you. What was the backstory on that?

Lyle Liechty: Yeah. Yeah. I was fortunate to have that situation where the birth parents were in high school in Indianapolis and they, um, realized they weren’t prepared.

So they, I was adopted by my parents who were, you know, fortunate that I had have them. My mom’s still alive, but. It was good for everybody. Yeah.

David Hirsch: And, uh, did you have a sibling or siblings when you were growing up or not? Yeah, I had a sister

Lyle Liechty: Beth and she was three years younger and she was adopted as well.

And then, um, she passed away a few years ago from a muscular dystrophy, which she didn’t have until she was older. Uh, which I learned was something that you can get as an adult. I just wasn’t aware.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, I’m sorry to hear about your younger sister passing away. Thank you. Um, and the fact that she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy later in life, which I think is less common than having muscular dystrophy at an earlier age.

Yeah. So let’s focus on the, uh, parents that raised you, not your birth parents. What did your dad do for a living

Lyle Liechty: my dad for most of his career, he was in management with Dunbar furniture. And they were well known as a mid century furniture manufacturer in Bern. Um, their product was well received all over the world.

That was real exciting. I w I was real excited to be able to learn a lot about furniture and how it was developed through the mail. And I ended up working for my dad and college summers and, um, college breaks. And then I started collecting Dunbar. In college and still have a lot of just bought a desk. If you were to go for my new office, that’s a friend of mine who had it.

He collects it to you, but he did. He’s getting rid of it. So, yeah, so he was a general manager for awhile there and, um, he retired a little early to enjoy the outdoors and so forth.

David Hirsch: Well, thank you for sharing. I’m sort of curious to know how would you characterize or describe your relationship with your.

Lyle Liechty: That was open. Excellent. Couldn’t really ask for more. He was always supportive and also taught me what was right and wrong. He never told me what, what to do. He just said, do your best. And if you work for someone, make sure you’re doing what you would do if it was your company. So I, I learned a lot from him, you know, I wanted to buy the company, not knowing and being naive, how much it would cost.

Uh, to buy it, but, um, I didn’t really realize that until college. So that didn’t happen.

David Hirsch: So in addition to the fact that your dad told you to do your best and to work as if it’s your own company, if you’re working for somebody, is there anything else that comes to mind when you think about lessons learned from your dad or.

Something that, you know, you’re trying to do yourself to be more like your dad.

Lyle Liechty: Well, he was very, uh, friendly, outgoing. He made people comfortable. Uh, when he ran the plant and the office, he would do what was later known as management by walking around. And do you remember that concept that came out well, he did.

David Hirsch: Yeah, it’s not MBA it’s MBWA.

Lyle Liechty: Yeah. So he, he was very good at, he knew the whole operation cause he worked his way up, but he also knew how to make people feel comfortable and he would have a sport coat and as soon as office, but then when he would go to the mill, he would change to a casual so that he fit in and they respected that he made.

Laugh a lot. He joked with them to make sure that they knew that it wasn’t somebody from management coming around that didn’t remember where they came from. He was very good at developing relationships and keeping and making sure that people were comfortable. And then, you know, he taught us and my mom about as well as my mom told us about, you know, how the right way to live and, and be involved.

The church and just being a good overall a human being.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, it sounds like he was an amazing role model and you didn’t use the word humility, but, um, it sort of based on what you were describing, especially. Trying to put in perspective, the different types of people that he was involved with at work.

There’s a certain humility that goes along with that. Right. Not having one persona, but to be able to meet people where they are, as opposed to, you know, from where he was. Right. That’s that’s really?

Lyle Liechty: Yeah,

David Hirsch: you’re right. Okay. Um, so what I remember is that, uh, you went to school at Indiana university, got a degree in March.

And you also got a master’s degree from university of Cincinnati. And I’m wondering when you were finishing your schooling, what was it that you were thinking about doing where did you think your career was going to take him?

Lyle Liechty: Well, I went to, uh, so I U and that’s where I became involved with working in a hospital.

And that’s why I wanted to go to grad school, to study healthcare news stories. So I fell in love with healthcare, working in college at, uh, Luther hospital, Fort Wayne, as an orderly, Mr. Gilliland, who was a vice of hospital, was kind of like my dad. He was very personable. So he would let me come in and talk to him about health care.

And that’s where I got really excited. Um, also I appreciated that someone at that level would come and talk to a college. It was working as an orderly part-time and take the time to informally mentor. So that worked out well.

David Hirsch: So where did your career take you from there? Um,

Lyle Liechty: after Dan, like, I wouldn’t see and Annapolis to, um, work for blue cross blue shield of Indiana, Indiana, and there I was a financial consultant, so I went out and negotiated contracts with, uh, hospitals and physicians for the PPO.

But I liked the whole idea of business development sales. So, um, I kept on with that part in healthcare, my whole career, and enjoy that, which has really boils down to helping people solve a problem. You know, everybody has something to solve. So if you can identify that and help them, that’s what I enjoy.

David Hirsch: Well, that’s fabulous. Thank you for sharing. And I’m sort of curious to know how is it that you and Susan.

Lyle Liechty: Well, we met by accident at the, um, us play courts. They used to be in Indianapolis, but they’re no longer there. But, um, we met there in between matches my best friend, and I went out for a break and she was there with her family from Michigan.

And that’s how we met. And they were big tennis fans and players. And I was just beginning and grad school. I didn’t learn how to play tennis until grants.

David Hirsch: So as soon as an also a tennis player or not,

Lyle Liechty: we both used to be, but we haven’t played in years. Yeah. Okay.

David Hirsch: So, uh, if you had to say one thing that you took away from tennis was that you found your wife.

Lyle Liechty: Yeah. That’s right.

David Hirsch: Okay. Well, that’s a bigger prize than I think most people probably experienced in most of their tennis careers is finding their spots.

Lyle Liechty: Yeah.

David Hirsch: So I’m sort of curious to know what’s the backstory. How did Caroline’s diagnosis come about?

Lyle Liechty: Well, when she was born, my wife sees, she knew right away something was not as expected. So she knew, and I didn’t really catch on right away and she knew something was wrong. So they did some observation. And then the next day they confirm that she was born down downstairs.

But Susan had that mother’s instinct that she knew. And the only thing we looked back on was when there was ultrasounds that they would say there were some measurements that were a little bit short her off, but it wasn’t triggered to that point. And then the cardiologist that, uh, Riley hospital for children, uh, he told us that the hole in the heart that she had should have been identified.

They were trying to improve, you know, training for the professionals that diagnose and do ultrasounds to identify that because that helps them to plan for the birth because what happened was the day after she was born, she, they call it dusting where they stopped breathing and then they transferred her to Riley from the hospital that she was born at so that she could.

And, uh, um, NICU. So luckily they identified that. And then we went down to, Raley’s spent a couple of weeks down there.

David Hirsch: And did she actually have a heart operation or not?

Lyle Liechty: Yeah, she did. Um, they want her to weigh 11 and a half pounds. So she was born seven pounds, 11 ounces, and then they want her to gain almost four pounds.

So she had. Surgery scheduled for early November, you know, that went well until the next day with the next event. So.

David Hirsch: Well, it sounds like a precarious start. Um, you’d already had a child, Christopher, your oldest, and then here’s your second child. Yeah. So it complicates things a little bit. When you have a young, younger child at home and then you have a child that has some complications, like you were saying, I can only imagine.

I’m wondering if you can put yourself back to that time, that first year or so. Um, what were some of the concerns or fears that you or Susan had at that point?

Lyle Liechty: Well, the first few weeks were. I remember those vividly because we went to Riley and met with cardiologists and different physicians and social workers.

And then once she was stable and we brought her home, but she wasn’t strong enough to drink the normal amount of ounces out of a bottle. So I remember I would. I think around four o’clock and give her a little bit, but then Susan, since Carolyn wasn’t strong enough to breastfeed, she had to, um, breast milk.

So we had to keep it frozen and the frigerator. So that was really hard. Susan, not having that bond with your child where you’re not able to breast feed when we were Riley, you know, we would stay down there. Um, One of us. And then one of us will be on with the customer. So every morning there would be people from our church of second Presbyterian church that were there and they were there before us and next to her bedside.

So we knew people were supportive and people we hadn’t even met yet because we had only been members for about about five years. But our church is pretty big. So we didn’t know all these people, but over the years we got to know them real well. And of course the ones that were there. That was real helpful.

The whole first year was it’s all the unknown. And then the good thing after the heart surgery was she got her strength where she could actually roll over. Um, as the first steps program, they would come to the house and work with her. But after her heart surgery with her whole, her heart repair, then her strength was there and she, you know, began to thrive and take the bottle and so forth, but it was.

A lot of stress just because we weren’t really sure what to expect and what would be next. And then we have a three-year old three and a half year old to make sure that, that he feels comfortable. So

David Hirsch: it sounds like there was a fair amount of uncertainty and. I can paraphrase what you’ve said. It just took Caroline longer, right.

To make some of these milestones, the ability to take a bottle. Right. It wasn’t something that she was able to do, like a typical kid at the same age. And, uh, I think you mentioned in a prior conversation, it took her a longer to walk as well. Right? It just was word delayed night. Yeah. Parents with a child with special needs, whether it’s down syndrome or some other conditions need to have an extra dose of patients.

So when I think about your story, what I know of your situation, one of the things that I think that you’ve done more so than most ads that I’m familiar with is that you’ve erred on the side of scheduling Caroline for a lot of different things. Right. And you might say that you’ve erred on the side of keeping this child super busy.

And I want to characterize that in a positive way. And I’m wondering if you could just provide our listeners with an overview of what that’s

Lyle Liechty: been like. Yeah, that’s true. I, um, I feel it’s important to be engaged physically and emotionally and intellectually. So. Uh, it has been involved with lots of activities through high school.

She was involved in the special Olympics track and field basketball in the summers. Uh, her and her sister, Claire were on the summer. One of the neighborhood’s swim teams. We had choices here. So the people there embraced her for that. And they at the swim meets, they, you know, they would help. Coax or along to get from one end of the pool to the other.

And then, um, Susan’s, family’s from Michigan. And so in the summer at the lake, she would join everybody else out on the water, uh, going to being, and, and swimming. And she still does. So, you know, that was something that she had, she enjoys the water. Um, she’s we start her with that question. For, um, you know, balance and confidence and so forth.

And so she’s been doing that for probably 18 years. So we, she does that now she arrives with two or three other people with disabilities that show up and she loves that. Um, she’s very engaged in Gigi’s Playhouse, which obviously, you know, And loves doing that on Wednesdays at epic is a program. And then she is fortunate.

We were blessed with a lady in here. A friend of ours has a daughter with down syndrome. Who’s a little bit younger and she started school. Uh, it’s called same as you like the university. And that school opened in January of this year and they give us theirs, start out with about seven. And you have to be out of high school and you have an interview and they, um, decide if you’re going to be a good fit and vice versa.

So she goes to that school, uh, Tuesdays from 8 45 to 3 0 5 and it’s academic based and faith-based, and that’s a blessing. That’s the biggest blessing since high school, because she actually really enjoys it. So come home and talk about it and show us what. She has done. And she’s also involved with best buddies through high school.

And then she has the best buddies from college, even though the best buddies from college program isn’t operating with COVID her and her best buddy have developed a friendship. So she still gets together with her twice a month. So she’s been involved in, she’s really enjoyed the Bible study on Thursday nights at church, which is on hold because of COVID.

And then our church, a group of us got approval to start a class at nine o’clock to match the class for other people as timeframe. So from nine to 10 on Sundays, there’s a class for people with special needs in our 18 year old, but she’s usually active with something like . And I think it’s important that she does.

And then her and I take walks a lot at night after work on a mountain trail and the, now she wants to learn to ride a bike. Or at least we’re going to do a tandem. Um, she’s done three, five Ks. And then, well, I think if she was a person without down syndrome, she’d be very athletic, but she is even with down syndrome.

So yeah.

David Hirsch: Well, um, my head is spinning with all the activities you’ve just described and I’m sure there’s others that didn’t come right to mind. Yeah, you’ve done over the years. No, I think that, uh, it’s the lesson for all parents, not just a parent, raising a child with special needs to, you know, have them try a lot of different things.

Cause you don’t know what their interest will be as they grow older. And you don’t want to look back and say, coulda, woulda shut up. Right. And it takes a little extra energy on both parents’ parts, right? From a scheduling standpoint. And if you have multiple children, you’re, you are almost a glutton for punishment.

Right. You know, when you sign your kids up for all these things, No being a parent goes by so fast. Can’t, you know, I think that that’s something that Peggy and I have embraced as well when our kids were younger because they’re all 24 to 31 now. And I think they’re grateful for a lot of the different experiences that they’ve had, even if they didn’t end up pursuing something.

Lyle Liechty: Oh yeah. Yeah. I know she enjoyed basketball for two seasons and then she just, when we took her back, she wasn’t the answer. So we pulled her up. But got engaged with something else. But the horse riding is very, um, rewarding. And then she also started dog walking business, uh, after high school for a year.

And I took her to those appointments. She had seven clients and then it worked out well because at the end that year, then she started with. At a restaurant, a sushi restaurant here in town. So,

David Hirsch: yeah, that’s fabulous. So I’m sort of curious to know what impact has Caroline had on her siblings, Christopher who?

Her older brother and Claire, her younger sister.

Lyle Liechty: Well, it’s been a very positive impact for them. They treat her just as they would or do each other or vice very close and they. I expect her to get by with things that maybe some people say, oh, you know, she let her do that because she has, you know, a disability.

So that’s good. Um, and they are very helpful when we need to have them help out in our household with our schedules. So yeah, they’re very, they all get along just like regular siblings and, um, yeah. Uh, explained to them what we have set up for her when we’re gone and, and they’ll be able to figure out to make sure that she’s, you know, well taken care of.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing. It sounds like Caroline has had a positive impact on both of her siblings. And, uh, I liked the fact that you mentioned that, uh, maybe they don’t cut her any slack for having down syndrome, which yeah. So let’s switch gears and talk about, uh, two of the organizations, one that you made reference to.

And then one that hasn’t come up yet. Um, let’s start by talking about, uh, dads, which I understand is an acronym for dads advocating for down syndrome. Now down syndrome of Indiana, you’ve made reference to it. Uh, how did that come to be? And what does that organization do? Yeah,

Lyle Liechty: dance is, um, it’s, it actually stands for dads appreciating down syndrome.

So we formed a group of, there were seven or eight of us that formed dads. It was great because we all had newborns or young, very young children. And so that started about 22 years ago and we’d meet, uh, on Tuesday, second Tuesday of the month at a restaurant and we would talk and share, and then it evolved.

Having speakers come in that would be applicable to different things that could be, you know, physical therapy company or a pediatrician or a financial planner. You know, we’ve had every type of profession that we can think of that would be helpful to speak to our dads groups. And we continue that probably nine or 10 of the months of the year.

We have a speaker, the other two or three. Just to have dance, sharing stories, which is valuable because it helps connect or maybe answer questions that you have instead of trying to navigate the world by yourself, you can ask, has anybody recommended that ophthalmologists or have you worked with this company or that company, or, you know, does your child have celiac disease where they are, you have to have gluten-free diet.

So all those things play into the purposes. One another, but we’re there to help. And then we also created a golf outing. We just had our 18th annual golf outing. It’s not terrible. We usually have it in may or the 1st of June, but we had to back it up, but we still had success with 228 golfers, uh, even during COVID so thing to do to have the dads group.

So now the dads group work like I’m one of the older dads. When I go to the meetings, I can help. If there’s a need I can speak up or I can decide on just listen. The really neat thing is we decided to take it national. So there’s, I think over 60 some chapters in the U S and Australia of dads groups.

David Hirsch: That’s fabulous. Thanks for sharing as well as a clarifying it’s day. Appreciating down syndrome, not advocating for down syndrome. Thank you. And, uh, I know that we have at least one of those in the Chicago area. Uh, one of the other dads in the network, Tom Delaney, uh, leaves the group locally and he has for about a decade and no doubt, uh, you know, they’ve taken a page or two out of your playbook because I believe that the dads appreciating down syndrome started there.

That’s fabulous. Thanks for sharing. Uh, the other organization that I know that you’ve been involved with is all pro dads. And I’m wondering if you could share with our listeners, uh, what the mission of all pro dads is and what your involvement has been.

Lyle Liechty: Sure. That’s a, yeah, that’s excellent organization.

That’s part of they’re based out of Tampa and they’re part of a organization called family first and they have. Uh, Tony Dungy, the former NFL head coach of the Colts. He’s our head coach, uh, so to speak. And what all pro dad is about is to helping fathers be even better fathers. You can be an excellent father, but you can always grow and develop or, you know, or grandfather or stepfather and stuff.

I got involved. I read about Tony Dungy and offer VAT in Indianapolis star. So I sent them an email and said that they would like to have someone help them get help. Her dad kicked off in the community. Well, coach Dungy was getting moved up here. I’d be glad to take some time. So we, they replied and David Brown and he was the vice president at the time.

And he and I spoke. And then. Brian and other, uh, part of family first and I’ll prevent, they came in Annapolis and we had a total of about 18 meetings in three days. I was involved with about 12 of those and that’s how we got started. And, uh, it was very rewarding because we could see, you know, another example of you just do things as a grassroots volunteer group, without any funding, you can get that.

That are positive for the community to be starting impactful. Now there’s, you know, all kinds of schools, elementary schools, where the dads are leading once a month at an all pro dads group for kids in each NFL team, that’s involved, they have an All-Pro day dad day. And for example, when coach Johnny was here, that it would be at the practice facility.

So the kids would go in there and. And have all these things to do well that a dance would go in and listen to coach Dungy speak, and then we’d regroup, regroup. So, um, that happens all over the country with different NFL teams that have, uh, a Christian player and, or coach or both involved. And that’s been real rewarding and fun.

And, um, that’s how that goes. So

David Hirsch: if I can paraphrase or summarize what you’ve said, uh, uh, you read a story about Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis star, and that led to starting the local chapter of all pro dads there in Indianapolis, which is in like dozens and dozens of different communities around the country.

And there’s a school-based nature to it. Yeah. And then NFL. Also have an All-Pro dad day, uh, which is sort of the professional pro sports of the aspect of the organization. And you mentioned that there’s a Christian basis to it, right? Not to be a Christian, but it’s a Christian based organization. Right.

And I know that, uh, Mark Merrill, who is the founder, I credit him with being the founder of family first and all pro dads as a part of family first, um, has a really interesting. Yeah, but he does, right. He right. And inspires people. Yeah. Is there anything else you wanted to add about all pronouns?

Lyle Liechty: I also share with people that I meet and encourage them to subscribe to all of her dad.com because it’s free and you know, you can learn from it.

It’s, uh, mark and his team has done a fabulous job putting it together. It’s just unbelievable. Have all kinds of resources that help them make sure it’s done. Right. And so I, an unofficial ambassador for them that I tell people about it quite often. Uh, and then we have events, uh, here once in a while for, um, people that have been supporting it, you know, financially and so forth.

And then there’s an annual event here with time. That he comes and speaks. And then there’s money raised. It’s usually about 120 or 130 people that show up from all walks of life here. Um, you know, it was great to see Tony again and he always remembers people. He knows your story and you know, he’s an inspiration.

Taking away the NFL part, this is a human being. So I always encourage people to subscribe to, to all this because it’s just very inspiring and learning from experiences of other people. And that you can realize how you can have a great life, that it could even be better, or you could have a lot of challenges in this case.

You know, uplift you or at least inspire you to keep going.

David Hirsch: That’s fabulous. Thank you for sharing. Um, so I’d like to talk about advice. I know that you’ve come up with quite a few things that I would categorize as advice, but I’m wondering if there is an important takeaway or two that comes to mind that you can share with our dads who are raising a child.

I missed that went down Tinder, but just a shadow with different abilities. What would.

Lyle Liechty: I would say that have high expectations and realize that you will have to adjust your expectations. From a time perspective. Carolyn was born. I had to become more patient. I was very competitive in the corporate world of business development and the company I was with, they were very generous with me being able to go what I needed to, we didn’t have cell phones back then we had pagers.

So, uh, when my wife would page me, I knew something was wrong. And so they were very flexible, but I think you have to have high expectations don’t ever give a yes. The patient has it, things will take longer, but they will accomplish things that you either want them to or things they may not. You may not have even thought about that.

They enjoy like art or music or something that wasn’t in your mind, but they are now capable of doing, you know, I, in general, I would say never. Yeah. Because life is, is a marathon. It’s not a sprint.

David Hirsch: Well, let me paraphrase, um, have high expectations, be patient, be flexible and don’t give up. That’s what I heard you say.

Lyle Liechty: Yeah. So

David Hirsch: I’m sort of curious to know why is that you’ve agreed to be a mentor father as part of the special father’s network?

Lyle Liechty: Well, I think it’s important. I love to, my biggest passion is to help you. If you can help somebody, no matter what it is. And I think you’ve done something each day that can impact somebody’s life, whether it’s something very small or big.

So I think we need more of that and more mentoring in the world just in general. And a lot of people end up going it alone. Um, special needs situations cause there’s a high divorce rates. So you gotta realize there’s people there that don’t have as much support as maybe they need or would like. So I I’ve learned, it’s just part of my nature to want to help people.

And so that that’s really as simple as that. Well, thanks for sharing.

David Hirsch: We’re thrilled to have you, and let’s give a special shout out to, uh, our mutual friends, Darren gray and ed Hackney for helping connect us.

Lyle Liechty: Yeah, Darren. Yeah. Thank you. Really appreciate it.

David Hirsch: Is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap

Lyle Liechty: up?

I would just say that I really appreciate your, what you’ve done starting this, and I wasn’t even aware of until Darren mentioned it. There was another conduit. So Darren knew about this and I didn’t, so now I can be involved and help and, you know, it’s very rewarding to be able to do that. And it’s amazing that I didn’t know about it, but that makes you wonder what else is out there that you don’t know about, but it’s, it’s really nice to see that what you’ve done and I can be involved and we can hopefully reach as many people.

Neither one of you reached as possible and, and then continue on and make the world a better place.

David Hirsch: Well, as my grandmother used to say from your lips to God’s ears, I’m hoping that that’s the case. Yeah. Um, if somebody wants to learn more about all pro dads or dads appreciating down syndrome or to contact you, what’s the best way to do that?

Lyle Liechty: Oh, sure. They can call me at three one seven nine nine three. 4 9 5, 0, or they could text me or they can email me at L M L I E C H T Y. And the number1@gmail.com and I am on LinkedIn and Facebook, but I’m not active on Facebook. So if you see it pulled up. See much activity for the past couple of years.

David Hirsch: Well, we’ll be sure to include that. Those connections in the show notes, make it as easy as possible for somebody to follow up with you. Well, I’ll thank you for taking the time in many insights as a reminder, Lyle’s just one of the dads. Who’s part of the special father’s network at data dad mentoring program for fathers, raising a child with special needs.

If you’d like to serve as a mentor or be connected to a mentor father with a similar situation to your own, please go to 21st century dads. Thank you for listening to the latest episode of the special father’s network, dad to dad podcast. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did, as you probably know.

The 21st century dads foundation is a 5 0 1 C3, not for profit organization, which means we need your help to keep our content free. All. Would you please consider making a text book contribution? I would really appreciate your support, Lyle. Thanks again.

Lyle Liechty: Thank you,

Tom Couch: David. And thank you for listening to the dad to dad podcast presented by the special fathers.

The special father’s network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs through our personalized matching process, new fathers with special needs children connect with mentor fathers in a similar situation. It’s a great way for fathers to support. Go to 21st century dads.org.

David Hirsch: And if you’re a dad looking for help or we’d like to offer help, we would be honored to have you join our closed Facebook group. Please go to facebook.com groups and search dad to dad also, please be sure to register for the special father’s network biweekly zoom calls held on the first and third Tuesdays of every.

Lastly, we’re always looking to share interesting stories. If you’d like to share your story or know of a compelling story, please send an email toDavid@twentyfirstcenturydads.org. The

Tom Couch: dad to dad podcast was produced by couch audio for the special fathers network. Thanks again to horizon therapeutics who believe that science and compassion must work together to transform lives.

That’s why they work tirelessly to research. And bring forward medicines for people living with rare and rheumatic diseases. Discover more about horizon therapeutics@horizontherapeutics.com.