Dream propels woman toward homeownership
When Jacqueline Godoy applied for a Habitat for Humanity home three years ago, she had her doubts.
Posted — Updated"I didn't think I would get it, to be honest," she said. "I had a lot going on."
But then she had a vision.
"I had a dream from the Lord. I saw this sign that said ‘Habitat for Humanity.' I saw a blue house. And I said, OK, Lord, I'm going to listen to you. This is a sign."
On Oct. 13, under a brilliant autumn sky, surrounded by North Carolina's mountains, Godoy stood on the porch of a tidy three-bedroom house in Lenoir with her three children, surrounded by her extended family, friends and officials from Habitat for Humanity of Caldwell County.
"It wasn't in the greatest condition," she says. "But it was a roof over our heads."
Godoy's family is from Guatemala, and they all ended up in Caldwell County: Her mom and dad, sister, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins. Godoy moved to North Carolina from California when she was five, and if she ever had an accent she has lost it now; she sounds like a native Tar Heel, even sprinkling an occasional "y'all" into her sentences.
Her new home, already nicely decorated with art and children's things, is part of the State Employees Credit Union's Mountains-to-the-Sea-Challenge to build a Habitat for Humanity home in each of North Carolina's 100 counties. The SECU Foundation put up $10 million to fund the construction. Once a homeowner assumes a zero-percent-interest mortgage from SECU, the money is returned to the affiliate so that another home can be built.
"We build six to eight houses a year," Kidder said.
"Thank you for encouraging me to keep my head up and not give up. Y'all told me it was going to be worth it at the end and y'all were right. The tears I cried and the struggles I went through to get to this point were all worth it, 100 percent."
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.