Habitat World Online

North Carolina: A homeowner’s experience — in her own words
In 1994, I was a young single mother of three children. Battered and broken. I felt it was very important to provide my children with a decent home. We came from a rundown mobile home, a place where garbage cans were set in the living room on rainy days to catch the water coming through the roof.

We found a place to rent, finally. I agreed to paint the entire outside of the house in lieu of half the security deposit. I am not afraid of hard work. And hard work it was! During that year, I struggled to pay rent and utilities, to buy groceries, school clothes, shoes and food.

I applied for a house through Transylvania Habitat for Humanity, on the suggestion of my best friend. A year after that, my children and I were moving into the home of our dreams. Nothing fancy, but it was dry and warm and safe. Most importantly, my children had a home they could take pride in. They were no longer embarrassed to invite a friend over, for fear of being labeled “poor.” We were no longer poor!

Here I am, some 13 years later. My children are grown and have gone on to raise their own families. After my sweat equity was complete, I continued to volunteer my time and talents, as that’s how Habitat works. I worked at pancake breakfasts, I sold greeting cards, manned bake sales, gave speeches. I served on the board of directors for several years and was on the family selection committee. I was once honored to tell my story to local preachers, in hopes of gaining support for churches to build a house. I remember talking through tears as I was overwhelmed with gratitude for what God — through Habitat for Humanity — had done for me and my children.

I’ve called my house “the house that love built” since I first moved in. Little did any of us know, all those years ago, that it would continue to grow in love and abundance to the extent that it has. My home, now under conventional mortgage, has changed extremely since it was dedicated in 1995. I have doubled the square footage in the last two-and-a-half years to allow room for my 7-year-old grandson and my aging mother, who moved in three years ago. She is 80 and in failing health. The first night she slept in her new room, she told me, “This is the first time in my life I’ve had my very own bedroom. Thank you.”

My home is now affecting the generation before me and the generation after — and who knows how many generations to come!

I don’t need Habitat for Humanity — thanks, in part, to the help they gave to me. I love Habitat for Humanity. For what was done for my family and for the smiles I see on the faces of the new folks being approved. We are God’s people helping God’s people.

By Stephanie Grubb, who has advocated for Habitat to the mayor and city council of Brevard, N.C.