A Promise, a Puppy, a Home

We recently caught up with Habitat Homebuyer, Shannon, to see how life has been since moving into their Habitat Home back in 2011.

Watch the video below to hear their full story!

When Shannon applied to the Habitat Homebuyer Program back in 2010, she was a single mom with three young daughters and little hope that owning a home could ever be part of her story.

“I told my daughter that if I ever owned a home, we could have a dog,” she recalled. It was a simple promise born of a bigger dream—a place of stability, love, and possibility.

In 2011, that dream came true. Shannon moved into her very own home. And true to her word, she traveled to Ohio with her daughters to pick up their dog—the family’s very first pet and a powerful symbol of home and family. Today, that dog is 14 years old—the same age as the house—and still leads the household with love.

A Family Fully Formed

Since those early days, Shannon’s life has grown in beautiful ways. Her then-boyfriend moved in, and they expanded the house to fit their newly blended family. They then got married, and Gary even legally adopted her daughters, cementing the bond they had all built together under one roof.

More than just bricks and mortar, Shannon’s home became the backdrop to holidays, milestones, and everyday moments. It gave her kids a place to play safely, a place to come back to, and—most importantly—a place to grow.

“It’s where they learned responsibility. It’s where they knew they belonged. And for 14 years, they’ve never had to scribble out their address on a school form.”

For Shannon, homeownership meant keeping a promise. But it also meant reclaiming a sense of confidence, stability, and the power to shape her family’s future. And now, she’s already thinking about how to pass that gift forward—maybe one day offering her home to another family in need of a new beginning.

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