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Fuquay-Varina Family Gets Home For The Holidays

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FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C. — If you want a group of people to root for this Thanksgiving, here they are. Meet the Benders.

Huddled inside a limousine almost the size of their old house, Jim, Lyn and their six children are preparing for the surprise of their life.

For more than 17 years, the family, which is active in its church and the Fuquay-Varina community, lived in a 1,300 square-foot home with three bedrooms and only one bathroom -- for eight people.

When Jim, a long-time soccer coach, found out he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease that causes heart attacks and strokes, the family asked Triangle Homeworks for a second bathroom. That's all.

What they got instead was a brand new 3,000 square-foot house, fully furnished with six bedrooms -- and three-and-a-half bathrooms. About 200 volunteers worked long hours to build the house.

"Oh my gosh," Lyn said as she and her family pull up in the limousine Thursday morning to the sight of a new place to call home and a crowd waiting to meet them. "I'm going to start crying."

The Benders' old home was built in 1923 and had little in the way of improvements since then. Thanks to countless donations from the individuals and businesses in the community,

Triangle Homeworks

, a new nonprofit organization in the Triangle that homeowners with repairs and special needs, worked to get the family moved into their new house.

"The magnitude of everything -- it is the little things that make up the big things and walking through (the house), all the little things make the big so special and such a depth to it," Jim said. "We realize how much people have sacrificed for us."

"It's more than a dream come true," Lyn said. "It's something we could never even imagine. It's beyond anything -- and it's all because of the love of a community and a church family."

And just 8 weeks since their hold home was torn down, the Benders are finally home for the holidays.

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