When Carmen Verdugo moves into her Habitat Home, it will definitely be a place filled with love and family – and good food!
Carmen works in the dental office at St. Elizabeth’s Health Center. Even with her busy work schedule, she makes sure she and her children – Carmen, Valeria, Gabriel and Careli – eat dinner together every evening in their apartment on the southwest side of Tucson. In their new home, even more people will be able to join those family dinners.
“We’re inviting – we love having people over,” Carmen says. “We enjoy having family time. Right now we go to my sister’s house on the weekend to cook.”
Carmen likes to cook everything – and enjoys cooking new things; she cannot wait to move into her new home. “Having a washing machine and dryer in the same area, and, no more stairs, and having the kids be able to ride bikes, and having a barbeque grill outside; it’s a dream come true!”
The kids are just as excited. When Valeria thinks about moving into a new home she says it feels like a dream. When asked about what it will be like to have her own room, she exclaims, “Awesome!” When moving day comes, Gabriel says, “I will be so happy that I am not going to be able to stand still!”
Even more than a place for family meals, a home means security for Carmen.
“It means future. It means stability. It feels like I’ve achieved, and am part of, the American Dream.”