Tangela is a hard-working mother of one grown daughter. She has been a Team Lead at SRG Global for over three years, and frequently works ten- or twelve-hour shifts. When she isn’t working, she loves to be at home, especially when nice weather allows her to be outside. She has moved frequently throughout her life and can’t wait to have the stability that homeownership offers.

She used to rent apartments, but now she rents a small home. She looks forward to the time when her monthly payments will be building equity in her own home. Her current house is very small, and it barely holds basic furnishings. Storage space is non-existent.

Tangela has long been familiar with Habitat. Both her sister and her cousin have Habitat homes, and they encouraged her to apply. She first applied in 2011 and was denied. Since then, she has been working hard to get to the point where she could re-apply. She was reluctant to apply again, but she did, and was delighted to be accepted. She was still asleep when she received the phone call saying she was accepted, but says, “That was the best alarm clock I could have asked for that morning.”

Now, in addition to her full-time job, she is working on taking her required classes and achieving her 300 hours of sweat equity. Some days she was only getting a few hours of sleep, and it was rough. When she was tired, she would say to herself, “I have to keep moving no matter what. This is something I want, so I know I have to keep going.” Encouragement from her family and other future homeowners in the program also keeps her going. She has formed special friendships with others in this process.

Tangela is grateful for her sponsor, and to the volunteers in the program. She says, “I want to thank them for putting in the time and effort for all of this.”

She can hardly wait to own a home for the first time. She wants to build a deck and have a cookout with all her family and friends. She is so excited to be able to paint her home for the first time and make it her own. It is going to mean so much to her to be able to sit down in a place she not only owns, but has also helped to build.