James and Cynthia Phelps traveled from Alaska to Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado in 2022 during James' medical retirement. When Cynthia suddenly went into pre-term labor, they rushed to Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas to get the best care for the birth of their daughter and stayed at the Fisher House there. When their next birth was also high risk, they went back.
“We got to watch people who are now our chosen family heal and got to see their journey while we were going through everything,” Cynthia Phelps said of staying at the Brooke Army Medical Center Fisher House two times. “So it was great, even though it wasn't something that we originally wanted. You know, nobody is expecting to be there, most of us are just kind of thrown into it.”
Nobody wants to need a Fisher House, but Cynthia and James Phelps were ordered to Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado as James started in the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program during his medical retirement in 2022. When Cynthia suddenly went into pre-term labor with their third daughter, they had to immediately pick up everything and head to the best hospital for their unborn baby.
“At that time my wife went into preterm labor and was informed she would not be allowed to fly back to Alaska,” James said, “Peterson didn’t have a NICU so we made the decision to make it to Texas because [Brooke Army Medical Center] was there and had all the services that my wife and our daughter would potentially need.”
While at the house, the Phelps met more families going through other struggles, bonding with them and with their newborn daughter, Rossi, during their five-month stay. The Brooke Army Medical Center Army Fisher House manager, Robyn Stewart, even celebrated the birth with them.
“They threw a baby shower for us,” Cynthia said. “I mean, all of our stuff was in Alaska; our car seats, our cribs, everything was in Alaska. They threw a baby shower for us at the Fisher House. And not just for us, there was another family that was there who had preterm labor with twins, and so our 2-year-old has birthday buddies from the Fisher House.”
Their experience was so good that, when their next pregnancy was ruled high risk and their doctor in Alaska was unable to support the surgery, they asked to go back to San Antonio and Brooke Army Medical Center.
And they tried to give back to the house by taking care of all the kids that were there at the same time as them.
“There was a family that had flown in from Germany,” Cynthia said, “and the husband, they believed, had Leukemia, but they were waiting on his diagnosis. And so we watched their five kids along with our four kids at the time, so there were like nine kids in one house and we helped them so that she could be there for her husband's Leukemia treatments.”
Cynthia and James are grateful for the support they received and for the chance to give back to other Fisher House families.
“Robin really worked hard and allowed us to be able to offer that support,” Cynthia said, “even though it's unconventional. Like the Fisher House really opened that and, you know, gave us a place where our whole family was just safe.”
The couple even once spotted a man sleeping in his car at the hospital and helped him get signed up for the Fisher House, Cynthia said.
“An older gentleman, he didn’t know about Fisher House, and the staff came in after hours, got him the paperwork.”
“And, it was nice to pay it forward, pay it back, too, because I felt like we were taken care of when we needed people.”
James and Cynthia have celebrated James’s progress along his own medical journey, especially as James competed in Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, earning some medals and making many memories. Cynthia and their youngest daughter, Laramie, were cheering him on courtside. Fisher House Foundation is proud to support families like the Phelps, not just within the walls at Fisher House but beyond our doors by supporting Team U.S. Friends and Family program at all the Invictus Games.
The whole Phelps family, including the couple’s other daughters – Dakota Jones, Kimbers and Oakleigh – are back in Alaska, healthy and growing strong.
