Yesterday I got the chance to visit a family who has lived for about a year in a house they helped build with the Atlanta affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. I always enjoy these opportunities to see the work of the organizations we support, so I was looking forward to the chance to talk to the parents and spend a little time with their 3 children (I’m a sucker for kids). I didn’t expect, however, to be touched to the extent I was by their story.
Yasir and his doctors after his transplant.
The family we visited had struggled to afford a healthy, safe home to raise their two girls and infant son until they were selected by Habitat to move into a new home. Their elation didn’t last long as the day after getting the call from Habitat, they learned that their 6 week old son, Yasir, needed a heart transplant. His mother was hesitant to have Yasir become the first infant in Georgia to be placed on a “Berlin heart,” a temporary device to help his heart pump, until they explained that without it he would probably die before he could get a transplant. In December of last year, Yasir got the heart transplant and after many months in the hospital, came home to a wonderful new home.
Yasir’s mother told me what a blessing their home had been as they dealt with the last year. They are paying far less each month than they paid in rent. Because the home is built to the green Earthcraft Home standard, their utilities bills are low and the home provides healthy air for Yasir’s weakened immune system. Knowing all of that would have made anyone feel good about helping families like Yasir’s have a stable, safe place to live for years to come.
Watching Yasir play with his two big sisters in the front yard of their home while knowing what their family had been through during the last year, reinforced the importance of having a “home base.” Coming home from the hospital each night, his parents didn’t have to worry about whether they were going to be able to make their rent payment or whether they would have to move again and transfer their daughters to another new school. They didn’t have to worry about where they would bring Yasir when he finally got out of the hospital. These thoughts just made me remember once more that it’s not about what we do, but the most important thing is who we are doing it for.
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