What does home ownership mean to a family?
What’s so great about owning your own home?
Here’s are some Habitat family stories:
A Poem by Yonas Takele
A home
What is that to most people?
To most people, it’s just a roof over your head.
To most it is just bricks, wood, and cement.
That may be true, but it’s so much more than that.
To us, it’s a place you can call your own.
A place where nothing can hurt you.
A place where you can do anything you want.
For behind those doors you can spill out your secrets, your thoughts and all your feelings.
Where no one can harm you or get to you.
A house is a thing that can not judge the person who lives in it, if they are disabled or ill, it’s always there.
It’s a place where you can worship God in a peaceful manner.
Where you have neighbors that respect you and accept you.
To us, a house is a blessing from God himself.
Habitat for Humanity is blessing from God himself.
Yonas and his family are on the waiting list for a home from Gwinnett Habitat in 2008. His brother and sister are disabled, which may be why he is so eager to find a home that “can not judge the person who lives in it.” They may also be the reason he wants to become a neurosurgeon! We believe he’ll achieve whatever he sets his mind to. Don’t you?
Lawson, age 9
This is the only house I know. I have my own bedroom, and I have sleepovers with my friends. And my home is near the woods — I get to explore and gather blackberries, and find walking sticks and bamboo, and tracking rabbits and deer. I have learned how to survive in the woods!
I love to garden with my mom. We’ve planted rosemary, mint, roses and other plants.
When we turn the corner into our neighborhood it makes me feel very happy. Because this is the place I call home.
Dora Bailey
I have never had a blessing like this before in my life. At Scottish Rite Hospital, a lady asked me to pray for Marquis, a 5-month-old baby in a coma — and I became his foster parent. And then a nurse helped me apply for a Habitat home. Everyone that worked on the house was so sweet and nice. God blessed me with my son, and then with a home from Habitat.
John and Etta Tuite
A home, for us, means security, and having the great feeling of owning something. My wife is disabled, so Habitat made sure our lot was level so my wife could get around. It took longer to build our house, but it's a very special place. We had help from fifteen churches to build our home — these people did so much for us, and we will never forget it. And we wanted to help others, so we put in 400 hours building other people's homes.
Remzije Shala
Remzije Shala lost friends and relatives to war in Kosovo. She and her husband moved to Georgia, but he died a year later, and a month after that her daughter was born. “I was afraid to be on my own,” she recalls. “I had lost so much." She was accepted into the Habitat program, and a Women’s Build constructed her home. "They helped me rebuild myself as a strong woman, a strong parent,” says Remzije. “Now I am not afraid.” And now she’s working toward a teaching certificate and a master's degree.