Another dream comes true…
Thanks to your support, a terrific young family in Grand County now has a home of their own and a healthy, stable environment for their sons. Click here to see a slide show of building the house. Please be patient with the download. Depending on your connection speed, it may take a while for the slide show to load.
The Bailey house is completed and Shane and Raina Bailey and their sons, seven-year old Sam and five-year old Ben, moved into their Habitat house in time to celebrate Thanksgiving. The move is also just in time to provide seven-year old Sam the healthiest winter of his life.
Sam is their miracle baby. He was born several weeks premature and with major medical problems, some of which persist to this day. Sam spent the first 10 months of his life in a Denver hospital. When he finally came home, he was still a very sick little baby. He needed 24 hour a day care which Raina and Shane had been trained to provide.
Sam was hooked to a ventilator around the clock for his first two years; his movement was restricted by the tubes and oxygen monitoring wires to a radius of only four feet.
Many emergency trips to Denver and many surgeries later, Sam continues to have persistent pulmonary problems. He still has a tracheal tube and is very susceptible to severe colds, especially in the winter when the forced air heating system runs.
That particular problem is behind Sam in his new Habitat house which we equipped with a hot water heating system. For the first winter of his life, Sam will be able to avoid the illnesses brought on by the impurities of a forced air heating system.
Thanks to your support, we were able to provide this heating system and much, much more to make a warm, healthy, affordable home for Sam and his family.
Shane and Raina are very excited about their new Habitat home. In Raina’s own words…
Since Sam was born, keeping up with his needs has meant some hard adjustments, large financial burdens and dreams put on hold. Shane and I decided to find a way to make our dream of a home for our family a reality some how. We started paying off debts and living well within our means. Yet it still was not enough to afford a home in Grand County. We are blessed to be given the opportunity to work with a wonderful organization like Habitat for Humanity, all of the wonderful people and volunteers, and the chance to build a home for our family, our children!
Sam and Ben are now buzzing about their bedroom. They are excited to make it their own with a place for their books, puzzles, games and toys. Our Habitat house is a dream come true and one we feel is a true blessing to treasure all our lives!
We are beyond words and gratitude for the opportunity to have a safe, healthy, stable home!
Shane, Raina, Sam and Ben Bailey
Your support has made Shane and Raina’s dreams come true.
Our goal is to continue to build simple, affordable, energy efficient homes for low income families in Grand County each and every year. We are most pleased to announce that the Bailey house achieved Energy Star rating and will be snug, warm and low-cost no matter how harsh the Grand County winter.
But the hard reality is that the cost to buy land and build even a simple Habitat house in Grand County is now well over $100 a square foot. This does not include the value of donated materials, services and volunteer labor. Without these donations our cost would be far higher.
Please click the Donate! tab on the menu bar and consider a very generous gift of $150, $200, $300 or more so we can continue to make dreams come true in 2011 and build our 10th house in Grand County.
Thank you so much for your continued support!
Joan Boyle
Executive Director
P.S. Your gift buys so much more than lumber and nails – it buys hope for a family. Just think what it means to a child to have a safe, healthy, stable home in which to live and grow.