When we have struggles, God finds beautiful ways to bless us. I have mentioned in several of my posts I don't see a day without pain. I have had several knee surgeries. I get migraines. I have hypothyroid disease. The lovely RA on top of all of that. We can go on about my medical issues. However, this is also about our family. Sharon and Leah both have needs. They both have trouble doing stuff on a daily basis. My husband on top of having to take care of us also gets migraines. We have a lot of things on our plate. The doctor appointments, therapy appointments and the cost of doing all of that. It has not been a picnic. I eventually had to stop working to support the needs of our children. We had hopes to get a place to live, a house. Those hopes seemed diminished with every passing day. It wasn't until I happened to talk to a care worker at YMCA. She was working with a young lady with Autism. She gave me several phone numbers to find help with things. I rarely pass up good advice. I went home and started calling those numbers. One of those numbers was for Habitat for Humanity.
I had a very small understanding of what they did. I knew they build houses for people who needed them. That was my understanding. I started to get involved by going to a meeting. There was an application process. As a mother with two special needs children this process was painless. We were approved. A lot of people would be jumping up and down with joy. My initial thought was how was this going to get screwed up. I know that I can't just look desperately for a house for years just to walk into such a perfect situation. My husband and I also had that fear of getting under water. We had been there before. We had a condo when all the bad mortgages were being handed out. At the time I was let go from a job. Then ended up having a major knee surgery. That was followed up by a pregnancy. This was all in the condo. I had to have my other knee done. Same major knee surgery. You guessed it followed by a pregnancy. Our medical bills were not manageable. I was only working part time. The condo was severely upside down. We got financial advice from Green Peace. We were very careful about taking the next step, However, that next step was foreclosure. At that time everything was in foreclosure. Our condo was not selling even with enlisted help. We ended up having to file bankruptcy. We were not going to go through that process again. Habitat is a program in which you pay a mortgage, taxes, and insurance. It is with 0% interest and it is tailored to ones income. Still with this fear was our emotion. It was with patience that Habitat slowly showed us what they were going to do to help. It wasn't just the house that was right where we wanted it. It was the education that they provide to every single one of their homeowners. They provide financial guidance all the way down to lawn care. It was this that fear started turning into excitement. Excitement started turning into hope. Hope started turning into planning. It was this that you would think was the beautiful part. It isn't the best part of Habitat. It is showing every homeowner that without a community we are lost.
In the process of getting a home Habitat requires you to take classes and put in volunteer hours. These volunteer hours are usually to build your own house! Habitat has you get involved in building the very house that you are going to be living in. When you move in not only are you going to be confident in yourself, you know that house. You have build those walls. You know where things are at. There are a few Habitat employees that work on the houses, most are volunteers. You are working together to help somebody have a home. Somebody because of you is going to be able to have some stability that they didn't have before. It is something that is pretty awesome. In the process of this usually you will be working with your neighbor. You will be working with people already in the community. It is teaching each homeowner how to love their neighbor. As homeowners we first start the program thinking I can't wait for me for the things I do. That it becomes about the other people in the program. You hear their stories and you wake up thinking I am going to work on so and so's house today. It becomes extra special.
Habitat is not just about putting nails in wood together until eventually it becomes a house. It is the initial invitation to provide that. Habitat is about loving Humanity. Loving them enough to show them how to love too. It is truly by God's grace that we were accepted into the program. It is an honor to do things for Habitat to work towards our house. I am humbled by their service to the community. I hope to serve them with every opportunity they give me.
