Alaina
A mother of one daughter, Alaina has called Sonoma County home for years, following her journey from Ohio to Lake County after college. With a degree in Psychology and a master’s program in Counseling, Alaina’s purpose is clear: to support children and teens in need and to be the mentor she wished she’d had growing up. Humble and determined, she’s currently renting in a neighborhood with limited safety. For the first time, she and her daughter will live in the same community as her daughter’s school—a dream come true.
Jeremy & Melissa
This couple has been navigating housing challenges with determination and humor. Jeremy grew up participating in sweat equity hours through another local affordable housing program. Jeremy now works in retail management, and Melissa works in health care services. For the past several years, they’ve lived with their family of four in a small one-bedroom cottage, dreaming of the stability that homeownership brings. Their two children, a boy and a girl, ages 8 and 11, will finally have the space and security to grow up in the community they love.
Kerrily
Sebastopol native, single mother Kerrily has dedicated her life to serving the Sonoma County community, currently working in nonprofit homeless services. Raising her two sons, ages 6 and 11, she faced increasing rental costs and housing instability over the years. Kerrily has also given back previously through sweat equity hours for a family ownership project. Now, after years of perseverance, she and her children will have a safe, stable home to call their own, right where their family and roots are.
Maria
Maria, a single mother of a college-age son, has lived in Sonoma County for 20 years, dreaming of a home to call her own. For years, she and her son managed rising rent and limited transportation, living near the college so he could walk to classes. Maria works for the County of Sonoma and hopes to foster children in the future, showing daily the care and dedication she brings to her family and community.
Hannah & Jeffery
Moving to Sonoma County from Los Angeles at seven years old, Hannah found home. She’s left and returned, but this is the place, the community, where she and her family belong. Her husband, Jeffrey, grew up in Trinidad and Tobago. Both coming to Sonoma from somewhere else, they appreciate the land and the people with the wisdom of contrast.
Jeffrey never had it easy either, losing his mother to drugs and his father to prison, and later death, at an early age. His own goals and his education were sidelined when he took on the care of his younger siblings. But these rough beginnings don’t hold him back: Jeffrey took literacy classes at the Sonoma County library, keeps his own landscaping business, is pursuing American citizenship, and even takes time to give back, like volunteering in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Through all their challenges, and against whatever obstacles they meet down the line, one thing continues to drive them: family. Their three beautiful children give them strength and purpose. Whatever it takes, the children will have what their parents never did—a safe childhood full of play and security, the freedom to dream grandly of their futures. Even in the home that the couple currently rents, where mold creeps in during damp winter months and they must make due with too little space, they give their children what they can of these things. “We are bound by love, hard work, and determination,” Hannah wrote in the personal statement that accompanied their homeownership application. They are family, they are neighbors—the only things missing are the walls and roof that they’ll own themselves.
The high cost of living and instability of renting in Sonoma County has at times forced Hannah and Jeffrey to consider leaving the community that they have grown to love, but through partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County, the dream of raising their children in a safe, comfortable home of their own, one of which they can be proud, will be a reality. Hannah and Jeffrey will be moving into one of two Habitat homes at Green Valley Village in beautiful Graton, CA. Hannah will be closer to work. Their children will play in parks and gardens and be surrounded by the gorgeous open spaces of rural Sonoma County. They’ll sleep in their own beds, breathe in clean air, tie memories of their childhood to a space that belongs to them. Their family will know a stability and permanence that they never knew before. They will be—finally—home.
Amy & Paul
We are doing great! We are so appreciative and happy to have our home. We absolutely love it! It has been such a blessing raising our children in such a nice home. Our children are 17, 16, 14, 12, 11, 6, 4, and 2. The kids are enjoying school and doing well in their classes. In their free time the kids play the piano, read, draw, play baseball, basketball, go ice skating, and of course video games are on the list. Our son and daughter are taking a cooking class and really love baking. Our 16 old son makes the best chocolate chip cookies, and our 12-year-old daughter makes delicious apple pies. Having older children who like to cook make the holidays more fun.
1 12 oz. bag milk chocolate chips
1 12 oz. bag butterscotch chips
Melt the two together on low heat in a saucepan,
Take the pan off the stove and mix in 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, then add 1 cup salted planters peanuts, 3 cups mini marshmallows, and mix together gently until the marshmallows and peanuts are coated with the chocolate mixture, then scoop the rocky road into a 8×11 pan that is covered with parchment paper to help keep the rocky road from sticking. Refrigerate for a few hours, cut, and enjoy.
Judy, Njeri and Koi
When my daughters Njeri and Koi were very little, we fled Kenya to seek asylum in the United States. We arrived here with little more than memories of the violence that took away not only our home, but my children’s father.
I was willing to do whatever it took to give my girls a life where they could be safe and realize their full potential. I knew that I was facing some of the hardest work in my life. And I was grateful.
What I didn’t know was that people like you – people who support Habitat for Humanity – would join my girls and me in creating a beautiful future of hope.
The first few years we lived in the US, I worked as a nursing assistant. More than half of my paychecks went to rent one room in a 3-bedroom duplex for me and my daughters to share. The home we lived in was crowded, and my daughters got sick frequently.
Then, on a beautiful day in 2006, we received the keys to our very own Habitat for Humanity home in Sonoma County.
My girls had rooms of their own. They could study in quiet. We had family meals together where we talked about our next dreams for their futures. Njeri and Koi became star students in school. They set big goals… to have careers in medicine.
Today, my little girls have made those dreams come true. They are both working to become doctors: Njeri is completing her residency in internal medicine in May 2020 and Koi is completing her pre-med under-graduate degree in May 2020 and is in the process of selecting her master’s program! I am forever thankful that our Habitat home made it possible for them to achieve their potential. Now, they are making the world a better place.
Life for all of us today is so good. I became a United States citizen. I remarried – a wonderful man named Dave. I serve as foster parent to adults with developmental disabilities. And recently, I sold our Habitat home so that another family in need could become Habitat homeowners. Now they, too, are building a new future for their children.
I hope you will join me in my support of Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County. Please send your donation to help Habitat build more homes with families like mine.
Your gift today will create big change and so much hope, far into the future. Thank you for your continued support.
May God bless you for being a friend of Habitat.
Sincerely,
Judy, Habitat for Humanity “graduate”
Jasmine Palmer
In her own unvarnished words, Jasmine Palmer “learned to be a responsible adult” later in life than she would have liked. But after years of “living like an adolescent teenager getting in trouble all the time,” she found herself at a crossroads, separated from her two children and needing to ask herself some hard questions about her future.
With her then 4- and 7-year-old daughters under the care of her mother, Jasmine entered and successfully completed a stringent six-month residential treatment program for substance abuse. She then reunited with her daughters and moved in with her mother, where she remains today as she begins to engage in the “sweat equity” activities in partnership with Habitat for Humanity that will allow her to become a proud and productive homeowner.
“I did a lot of damage when I was in trouble,” she says. “It was pretty cool to be able to prove that I’d re-established everything. It still doesn’t seem real yet, like it’s too good to be true. But I’m ready to be independent. I’m ready to be Mom again.”
Jose Martinez
Jose Martinez was laughing “I’ll show up tomorrow (at the dedication of his Habitat house) with big dark circles under my eyes,” because he expected to be too excited to sleep all night.
What was he most looking forward to? “Celebrating with all the volunteers with heart who made the magic. It’s magic, a miracle,” he said.
His wife, Maria, who speaks little English, is looking forward to a home of her own, something she didn’t think she’d ever have. “It’s a dream come true,” Jose translated.
Martinez, who works in inventory and quality control at Sonoma Tile, said he and Maria and their two daughters were living in a one-bedroom apartment when they learned about Habitat from a sister-in-law and in the news.
“We wanted a home of our own, but we knew we would need help of some kind. We were looking for a program,” Jose explained.
They applied even though Jose didn’t think they would get accepted from so many applicants. Once they were accepted, they had to qualify for the mortgage and the Habitat partnership.
What didn’t make it easy was being burned out of their apartment last November. They lost almost everything except the clothes they were washing at the laundromat when the fire broke out. It started in the apartment next to theirs, but seriously damaged theirs as well.
Jose points to the couch which was just one of the pieces of furniture that came from Habitat’s Re-Store after the fire. “Staff was great; the volunteers were great. People gave us things to keep going,” Jose explained.
The building process went just as well, with helpful construction crews patiently coaching Jose and Maria in what to do as they put in their 300 hours. On weekends their daughters, Aidely, now 10, and Mariel, now 6, visited their future home and picked out bedrooms.
Mariel, a second grader at John Reed Elementary school, wrote a story for class about her new house and drew a picture of how her new house will look. Still excited Mariel announced “…and we’re going to get a pet dog!” Her mother interrupted her gently with a few words in Spanish. Aidely, a sixth grader at Technology Middle School, explained with a big grin that actually her mother thought they should start small, with a hamster, perhaps.
Everyone is looking forward to an outdoor area. At the apartment they found after the fire, there is no outdoors area for the family. Maria is looking forward to a garden with lots of flowers and vegetables. The girls are looking forward to having outdoor space to relax and play.
The whole family was able to attend the dedication. “We got permission for the girls to miss school for the day,” Jose explained, “so that they can help us celebrate with the volunteers. We are so happy they decided to use their time to help us.”
Karen
A single mom with two kids – Arabella then 9 and Andrew 15 – she was working full time, and living in a 700 s.f. two-bedroom cottage. Each child had a bedroom and she slept in the living room. The cottage had mold issues, which her son scrubbed down regularly with bleach. Because of this, the kids didn’t feel like they could invite friends over. Redding dreamed of going back to school and getting a Dental Assistant credential so she could earn more money than she was as a receptionist to afford a larger house.
That was nine years ago. Then, a church friend told her very firmly “You need to go” to an informational meeting about qualifying with Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County for one of four houses to be built in Sebastopol.
Nevertheless, she filled out the paperwork. She also kept pursuing her goals and started back to school.
“I didn’t think I’d get the house… and I knew I needed to improve our situation,” Redding said. “I didn’t want to count on the house; I had to keep moving myself forward.”
After an entire year, going from one phone call to another that told her she had been approved to move to the next step in the qualifying process, she and her family were asked to attend a meeting where they were met with balloons and photographers. They had been selected to be one of the four families.
She and then 17-year-old Andrew worked on the house every single Saturday from 7:30-2:00, the only day that fit into her schedule with full time work and Andrew’s school. At the same time, Karen was working hard to earn her Dental Assisting credential at SRJC, and eventually passed the state licensing exam.
“Everyone at Habitat was so great,” Redding said. “Whatever we were doing that day, they patiently and respectfully taught us how to do it.” It was a long process and a lot of sweat-equity hours, but eventually it was done. She’s been in the three-bedroom house six years in October.
Arabella, now 18 and looking forward to her first semester at SRJC, remembers getting the keys to their new home. “We slept in the house that night…before we even moved anything in! Everything smelled so new. We slept on the floor but we didn’t care – it was finally ours!”
Andrew, who helped build their house, has never actually lived in it. Like his mom, he kept working on his goals. He did well enough at Technology High School to earn scholarships at Rochester Institute of Technology, leaving for college just as his mom and sister were moving into the house. Now 24 and an Environmental Engineer with Lockheed Martin in Palmdale, California, he comes home to visit on weekends as often as he can.
Arabella is looking forward to studying Kinesiology and going into Sports Physical Therapy at Baylor University in Texas. She has learned a lot as well from the Habitat process. “I realize that anything is possible, but you have to work for it,” Arabella said. She wants to earn enough as an adult to give back to Habitat for all it did for her family.
Redding herself still feels “so blessed!….I never thought I could own my own home, especially in this county…I am very thankful.”
