Habitat for Humanity

Most of the time we concern ourselves with high style for the home. But sometimes it’s nice to give thanks that we have a home, period. Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia had its annual breakfast benefit today, and the stories were both heartbreaking and inspiring.

Sosina, right, stands with husband Yohannes and their children in their new home built by Habitat for Humanity.

Executive Director Karen Cleveland spoke of helping a family who had lived in an unfinished basement for three years, hanging sheets to separate the space into “rooms.” She described another family that was able to escape an area where gunfire was common to live in a new Habitat community that was safe. And Sosina, an Ethiopian immigrant, took the stage to describe her family’s tough times while both she and her husband Yohannes struggled through school to start careers. The two-bedroom apartment they lived in with their three children was infested with roaches, one of which crawled in her young daughter’s ear one night and had to be extracted in the emergency room.

Those are the kinds of families for whom Habitat builds homes. You can see more from the video shown at the benefit this morning, and you can donate right here.

And if you want great deals on home supplies, consider shopping at Habitat’s ReStore in Alexandria, VA, where all the proceeds go back to the charity.

Let’s be thankful that we can worry about things like window treatments and fine china rather than wondering whether our sleeping children are safe from cockroaches.