Habitat Stories: A New Chapter

“I don’t want to be known by my trials, but the victories God has brought me through.“

It’s an all-too-common story these days: high school dropout, three kids without a dad in the picture, homeless on and off for years, hooked on meth and headed nowhere, looking like a tragic ending was inevitable.  Except it wasn’t.

With tears pooling in her big blue eyes, Alisa talked about the day she knew it was time for a change.  She had put the two youngest to bed, sat down and snorted a couple lines, and realized a doctor’s prediction of a heart attack was going to come true if she didn’t stop.  “I thought about my babies, and how they were going to be left without a mother, just like I was at the age of three.”  And then she blacked out.  When she finally came to, she was done. She walked away from the drugs, and never looked back.

Alisa has now celebrated seven years clean, and she’s celebrating in a big way. She now has a job working in the kitchen at church. She was gifted a car. She has paid off her debts and fixed her credit. She completed her GED, and she is planning to start on a counseling certificate. She just moved out of her tiny apartment, and into a Habitat home. Alisa is the story we don’t hear enough.  But Alisa is a shining example.

Alisa built her home alongside a team of women (and men) from all over the Valley, at our annual Women Build, taking place on Plum Street in Parkersburg.  Her boys finally have their own rooms – something they can barely imagine – and Alisa finally has safety, and stability, and a yard. Things she hasn’t experienced in a very, very long time.

This is a perfect example of what Habitat does. We offer a hand up to those who are reaching, and ready.  To people who are looking for the light at the end of a very dark tunnel that most of us can only imagine.  We invite you to share in the Habitat experience, as we help more families like Alisa’s. There are positive outcomes to these stories, but only if folks like you are willing to be part of the telling.

We are all now part of Alisa’s story.