TULSA -- A family of seven has a home for the holidays after Habitat for Humanity builds its 400th home.
Christmas came early this year for Johnisha Stanton and her family of seven.
Stanton explained, “My sister-in-law, which is my husband’s sister, passed last year in a car accident. She had three underage children. Me and my husband just decided that we could create a great future for them.”
That future included a home of their own. She said, “Now, we have a 15-year-old, 13-year-old, 12-year-old, 5-year-old, and a 1-year-old.”
Everyone was living in a two-bedroom condo. Stanton explained, “It was one kid in our room, three kids in one room, and then one possibly sleeping on the couch or pulling out another mattress.”
Stanton and her husband reached out to banks and lenders but kept getting turned down.
Cameron Walker, CEO of Tulsa Habitat for Humanity said, “They have very strict requirements. So, we stand in the gap and work with families that have enough income to make a mortgage payment, but because of a number of extenuating circumstances can’t go the traditional route.”
Stanton said, “We just kept getting no’s, and when we sat in that office at Habitat, she was like, ‘I’m here to tell you yes today.’ we were just like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is crazy!’”
Construction started in late September and the four-bedroom house wasn’t supposed to be ready until next year. But Stanton and her family pushed and worked on the house to get it done just in time for the holidays.
She said, “We want to be home for the holidays. That is literally what we’ve been calling it from the day they told us to go pick the land.”
It’s land that they can now call their own.
Stanton said, “To us, this means everything. Yes, we probably won’t have everything moved in by Christmas, but just to sit here and come together as a family and just be thankful for what we had or what we’ve come from and to be thankful for where god has us now is just a story by itself.”
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