Chris Chatwin speaks during a Homes For Our Troops key ceremony on Saturday at the Chatwins' new home north of Bend. 

A crowd lined the road leading up to the new house on SW Gift Road on Saturday. People cheered as Chris Chatwin and his family drove up the long driveway with their hands outstretched from the window to thank everyone for sharing this moment with them.

After 13 months of waiting, the Chatwins were finally home.

The new house would change a lot for the family. Throughout six deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, 44-year-old Chatwin suffered from gunshot wounds, a traumatic brain injury and prolonged exposure to burn pits.

In 2012, he was diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis, a rare progressive chronic illness that affects nearly every part of his body, including his spine, kidneys, liver, lungs and eyes. While Chatwin currently only needs the assistance of a cane, his condition is terminal and doctors say he will inevitably become wheelchair-bound as the disease progresses.

“We currently reside in a two-story house, and with my medical condition, it’s very difficult to get around, particularly up and down the stairs. I’m living for the most part on the first floor right now,” Chatwin said.

But in this new house, located off the Old Bend-Redmond Highway between Bend and Redmond, Chatwin will have more than 40 built-in accommodations, ranging from custom entryways to a luxurious bathtub with massage jets. There are also lowered countertops, more accessible light switches and a wheelchair-accessible shower.

The best biggest perk, though? The home comes as a mortgage-free gift from Homes For Our Troops, a non-profit organization that has built 385 homes for disabled veterans in 45 states since the Boston-based non-profit was established in 2004.

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“Our mission is to build and donate specially adapted custom homes for severely injured post-911 veterans to enable them to rebuild their lives,” said Shannon Fuller, Homes For Our Troops community engagement coordinator. “But this is just one home. Our work is not done. There are over 1,000 service members across the country who have returned home with a life-altering injury, and they are in need of specially adapted homes as well.”

Chatwin served in both the U.S. Marine Corps and the Army, where he finished his service as a sergeant. While the connection between illnesses like Chatwin’s and burn pits — the moniker used for the military’s practice in both Iraq and Afghanistan to burn trash in open-air pits — has been speculated upon for years, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs only acknowledged it as a service-connected disability in 2022.

Because of Homes For Our Troops, Chatwin will be able to be more independent as he spends his remaining years helping other veterans and spending time with his three young children, Miles, Marlowe and Maxwell. His wife, Katie, said three years ago, the doctors gave Chatwin two to five more years to live, but his health has far exceeded what doctors predicted for him.

“I was trying to think up some funny stories, or something I could tell, but the reality is (Chris) just continues to serve and continues to pay it forward. And he just doesn’t stop. It’s a blessing in my life and our community’s lives,” said his long-time friend Dave Jones.

After the Chatwins spent an hour of hearing accolades about them and this process, they were finally able to enter their new home. The family stood behind the ribbon that spanned the entrance as Miles, Marlowe and Maxwell fidgeted in excitement.

They cut the ribbon together and entered the doorway to their new lives.