Travis Wood lives a happy, unassuming life in Cedar City, Utah. He is a high school science teacher, and he and his wife, Stephanie, have three children they adore. By just looking at the couple, you wouldn’t know how much they’ve been through in their life.
You might wonder how Travis lost part of his right leg. Or if you’re lucky enough to get to know them better, you might wonder how he and Stephanie came to know the Savior so intimately. Of course, many experiences shaped the Woods into the people they are today. But two experiences stand out more than most.
The Miracle of Maddy and Her Polly Pocket
Travis’s parents were drug addicts when he was born. He grew up struggling to care for his younger siblings as they, at times, lived in a car, going in and out of Mexico. The siblings were eventually split up, and Travis was sent to live with family in Cedar City.
Friends introduced Travis to the gospel and read the Book of Mormon with him in the school library at lunch. He was baptized soon after high school graduation.
He later attended college, joined the Army National Guard, and married his wife, Stephanie, in the San Diego California Temple. Together they welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Maddy. The family lived together until Maddy’s first birthday, and then Travis left for a combat mission in Afghanistan in 2006 that would change their lives—and testimonies of the Savior—forever.
Travis was in a vehicle that was blown up by not one but three enemy anti-tank mines. The blast blew completely through the vehicle. His spinal cord was broken in multiple places. His pelvis sustained multiple fractures. Three of his ribs broke, one of which punctured a lung. He lost a foot and half of his small intestine, his skull was partially crushed, and he eventually lost his right leg from the knee down.
He stabilized enough to be flown to Washington, DC, where he remained in the hospital for the next two and a half years, enduring a total of 84 surgeries. He was only 23 years old, and Stephanie was only 22.
Travis’s recovery was anything but smooth. After waking up from a coma, he was racked with pain as his weakened body tried to fight life-threatening infections.
“I remember looking around and feeling hopeless,” Travis says. “I was secretly wishing that the medicine and the surgeries wouldn’t go well so my wife could move on with her life.”
As despair threatened to take over, a miracle walked in the room. His daughter, Maddy, who had just turned two, had been staying in Utah with family. But six weeks after the attack, she was able to visit her parents.
“I remember when she walked in the door,” Travis says. “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life. She was in a beautiful little princess outfit, and I just started sobbing. She carefully climbed up in the bed, and she looked at me. She didn’t look at my injuries or my wounds; she just looked right at my eyes.
“And she reached into her little backpack, and she pulled out a Polly Pocket [doll]. And she handed it to me.
“And right there, a two-year-old taught me something more powerful than anything can be taught in any institution ever: it doesn’t matter what I am not—it matters what I am. I am a son of God. I am a father to this choice daughter, and I am a husband to my wife, and we are an eternal family. And I’m not gone yet, which means I still have divine purpose, and I need to continue to press forward. So that’s what I did.”
Staying True Despite Not Feeling the Spirit
Restarting their lives after the extensive hospital stay was no easy feat for Stephanie and Travis. They chose to trust the Lord, even though feeling the Spirit was difficult as they processed the trauma they’d been through.
“I remember going to the temple and just crying because I couldn’t feel anything,” Stephanie says. She and Travis stayed committed to scripture study, prayer, and temple attendance while also seeking help from mental health professionals.
“We didn’t know how to feel or what to feel. We knew the Church was true, so we just kept doing what we knew was right. We didn’t necessarily feel His presence in our life because we were just so numb with the trauma and the emotion of everything,” Travis says.
“But we held true for 10 straight years—and then the miraculous thing happened: the joy came back tenfold. And the joy we feel today is far more powerful than the pain we felt for those years when we were just suffering. The joy we have now is just so profound.”
During those 10 years, Stephanie struggled with a miscarriage, depression, and finding a sense of identity. She and Travis also navigated infertility and were grateful to have two more children, whom they describe as miracles. The years were taxing, but with time and effort, including taking up CrossFit, Stephanie now feels more like herself.
“I want people to know to not give up,” she says. “Just because you are struggling for years, don’t give up.”
Travis went back to school and—despite his minor brain injury—earned a double bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry. He now loves teaching high school science.
As the Woods move forward in their lives, they continue to rely on the Savior to help them live with joy.
“Even on my laziest day, I could never deny that the Atonement is real and that this gospel is true,” Travis says. “I’ve had so many experiences in my life to know that God is at the helm of this and His Son is on His right hand watching, guiding, directing us through living prophets.
“I’ve learned that the choices that you make are very powerful and profound. And sometimes it’s a hard road to take that uphill battle, but it's always the right one. It's not about becoming the victim, but the victor rising above your circumstances. And the only way you can do that is through our Savior Jesus Christ.”
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