“Habitat provided my family with an unprecedented sense of stability.”
– Sarah, East Jefferson “Habitat Kid” pictured with her mother, Joyce.
Habitat has changed lives in our community. With 91 children growing up in 40 Habitat houses in East Jefferson County, we’re grateful to a local “Habitat kid” for offering to share her story.
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My name is Sarah. I want to tell a story. I’m writing this right now because I really love to talk about my family. And my family was raised in a Habitat house, so stories about my family invariably involve Habitat for Humanity. Our Habitat house is one of the first few that was built in Jefferson County, back in 1999 and 2000.
I’m the third of six kids, and by the time I got to high school, mom was raising us on her own, with no child support. It was tight. Our family got to the point that we really couldn’t make ends meet anymore. Then we found out about Habitat. My mom applied and we were approved. It was unbelievable. This was the end of my sophomore year in high school. On Mother’s Day of the following year we moved in to our very own house.
At that point my older siblings were already living on their own, and I had just a year left before I finished high school and was also out of the house. But our Habitat House made a huge difference in my final year at home. Being in town made it so much easier for me to get around: I had my job downtown, but I also now had much more access to other extracurricular activities. We could finally afford a computer—and dial up internet access! I could finally do my homework at home, researching and typing papers, college applications, and of course listening to music.
These things were a big deal for me, for sure. But this isn’t really even about me so much as it is about my younger siblings. Jessica was 9, Kerri was 7 and Micah was 5 when we moved in, and they grew up in that house.
Habitat provided my family with an unprecedented sense of stability. By the time we moved in, this was my seventh home, and my fourth school district. Financial instability throughout my childhood had us chasing jobs around the whole region. That constant change was tough on me and my two older siblings, and by the time we landed in Port Townsend, my mom made a promise to us that we wouldn’t ever have to change schools again. Habitat made it possible for her to keep that promise. So Jessica, Kerri and Micah did the bulk of their growing up in that house, and were in the same school district all the way through high school graduation. This stability for them has led to life-long friendships, continuity throughout school and sports and a really beautiful engagement in this local community that is still there, even though they’re all living in new communities.
Habitat also made college a possibility. Growing up in our low-income household, it was never assumed, and certainly never a given, that we would all go to college. Hoped for, of course, but not a foregone conclusion. I was the first to put myself through college, slowly, working on my nursing pre-requisites, then nursing school with an associate’s, a bachelor’s and finally a graduate degree By the time Jessica started college several years later, and then Kerri right after her, and then Micah just a couple years later, my mom had the capacity, because of the stability offered by the Habitat House, to help each of them financially as they struggled through college life, at community colleges and universities. At one point it was all three of them in college—at once! I give Habitat so much credit for the fact that Jessica, having graduated two years ago, is now teaching art at a public elementary school in Austin, Texas. Kerri just graduated this past spring with a chemistry degree from the University of Washington and is working as an analytical chemist in Seattle. And Micah just started his third year at Western Washington University, studying political science and environmental science—he could very well be the one to save the planet someday! And I have my nursing job, right here in this county.
We are four Habitat Kids who, because of Habitat for Humanity, have incredible gifts of service to put back into our communities.
So thank you. Thanks for giving to Habitat; thanks for volunteering for Habitat. When you give of time and resources and money, you’re enriching not just individual families, but entire communities.
I just bought a home in June here in Jefferson County and my mom helped me move in. We’ve done this many times throughout my life and we’ve got a pretty good system. As we moved the first few loads my mom realized that my neighborhood was familiar to her; the three houses across the street from me are Habitat houses. As we made that realization, and as I made connections with my new neighbors, I realized that being among Habitat families made me feel so at home. I’m so happy to be in this neighborhood.
My new house came with a new carpet—you know that off-gassing, chemical smell that kind of gives you a headache? I love that smell. I love it because it always brings up these incredible memories of being 17 years old and moving into our new house, and the first time my family had anything new, anything nice. That smell recalls for me that overwhelming, wonderful feeling of safety and stability.
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House Dedication Ceremony, 2000.
Sarah with her mother Joyce at their Habitat home, 2017.