Freedom to Thrive

A mother in Florida enjoys the financial breathing room of an affordable home.

It was during the time when her youngest son was in the hospital with a life-threatening condition that Lois DeVoss knew she had to make some changes. She knew that her mobile home, with its poor air quality and lack of adequate air conditioning, would not provide her son with the environment he needed to heal after the hospital stay. It was the patient advocate at the hospital who told her to contact Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville, Fla. She did and began a complete transformation of her life and that of her three sons.

Lois DeVoss is an involved, loving mother who works full-time at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, Fla., to support her family. Life was wearing her down and it showed at work, although Lois did not sense it. Raising three boys, working full-time and living in substandard housing had taken its toll on her spirit. Once the Habitat education and building process began, her co-workers noticed the change. “My boss told me that if she would have known that getting a new house would change my attitude like it did, that she would have bought me a house long ago,” Lois says. “HabiJax gave me the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Lois took tons of photos during the building process to create a lasting documentary of this life-changing event. She moved into the house in May and looks forward to special days in her new home with family and friends, and a living situation that will support them for many years to come. “The fact that I am in a home is so much better,” she says. “After I pay my HabiJax mortgage, I have money left to buy groceries. I can do what I have to do and have control of my life.”

--courtesy of Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville, Fla.