Christina, the devoted and hard-working mother of four children (ages 15, 13 12, and 3), is determined to make life better for her family. She is very excited to have been accepted into the Habitat program. She feels that she will be able to provide a sense of stability and security for her family that she had not experienced before. No one in her family has ever owned a home, so this will be her family’s first experience with moving into a brand-new home.

Christina is a Certified Nursing Assistant and a Certified Medical Assistant. She is working on becoming a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). She has worked at the Silver Birch long-term care facility for five years and loves every minute of it. She grew up in a large family and developed a heart for helping and serving others at a young age.

Currently, Christina and her family live in an older rental house that has not been well-maintained. Both the rent and the utility bills are high. The house has only one closet, so the children keep their clothes in bins. They are all looking forward to having more room and enough space to invite their friends and family to visit.

Christina has known about Habitat for a long time. She worked on a Youth build when she was in her teens, and she first applied for a home at age seventeen. She was not accepted into the program at that time, so she worked on learning what she had to do to have a successful application. She applied again years later and was accepted. She found out on her birthday, and cried tears of joy.

Her life certainly has become busier since being accepted into the program. Even though she is working full time, taking care of four kids, completing her sweat equity hours, and taking the required Habitat classes, she finds it is manageable because she can clearly see the end result. She has loved becoming part of the Habitat family of employees and volunteers, as well as her community of future homeowners. She has found the classes, especially the class in financial planning, extremely helpful.

The entire family is looking forward to living in their new home. The kids are constantly asking, “How many hours do you have?” They know that 300 hours of sweat equity is the magic number for the house. Christina is so grateful to her sponsor and to all the volunteers and feels blessed to be surrounded by so many people willing to help her. She says, “All the people at Habitat are always willing to help me, no matter what.”