Lia picked up her pen nervously, about to fill in her Habitat homeownership application.
“After the Information Session meeting, I did the application and in my head I was like, No, this and that. I was coming up with so many things not to finish the application.”
That was almost the end of her Habitat journey. But she was encouraged by her coworkers at Chapman Honda to apply. Her coworkers were, after all, the folks who first introduced her to Habitat Tucson, since they are regular volunteers who come out to the build site to build homes, community, and hope. She was checking her email multiple times a day, just waiting to be told ‘no.’
When Lia got the call she had been accepted, she was flooded with relief!
When she found out she would be receiving the women build home she was excited.[mk_image src=”https://habitattucson.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/screen-shot-2021-11-17-at-1.15.18-pm.png” image_size=”full” title=”Habitat Homebuyer Lia” desc=”“It’s world-altering. After I was accepted into the Habitat program, I literally crawled up in my bed and cried the entire night.”” caption_location=”outside-image”]
Lia knows a safe, stable home isn’t a given for many people—herself included.
“I had nothing. No car. I didn’t even have a bed,” Lia says. “But I pushed forward every day.”
Since moving in with her best friend, Lia and her son have shared a tiny room. It gets very cold in the winter, and it’s hard living in a home she knows belongs to someone else. She cannot wait to have a home to call her own—to give Jonathan the dinosaur bedroom he’s always dreamed of. Already she has completed over 200 hours of her sweat equity, and knows that this winter will be so special–she’ll be able to celebrate the holidays as a first-time homeowner!
She’s so excited to give Jonathan his own room, to be able to wash laundry in her own house, and to have a place where the plumbing works.
She’s befriended her fellow Habitat homebuyers, and they cannot wait to string up holiday lights and have their kids trick-or-treat in their shared neighborhood.
“My life is a complete 360 from what it was 4 years ago,” Lia says. “There’s amazing people out at the build site every single time you go, and they put their positivity into each structure—into the walls!—and I really, really appreciate that.”
As the houses have come closer to completion, Lia can hardly contain her excitement. She keeps imagining what it will be like to put her own furniture and belongings into the space. She even climbs into each tub, imagining what it will be like to enjoy a soak in her future home.
“Home means…relief. Relief. The second you walk in,” Lia says. “There’s no words for this blessing. It’s too amazing.”
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