So, what to say for our very first blog post?

Let’s talk about Faith.  Faith became a Syracuse Habitat for Humanity homeowner a little over a year ago.  This will be her second Christmas in her new home.  We asked her to write about her first Christmas in her new home, and we used her story in this year’s holiday appeal letter.  Perhaps you’ve received it. If not, here’s a story about Faith’s experience:

This Christmas, if Faith Gilliam doesn’t get a present, odds are she won’t mind. She’s still glowing from what she received last year: a three-bedroom ranch from the Syracuse Habitat for Humanity.

Faith is a mother of three. She applied two times to become a Syracuse Habitat for Humanity homeowner. The first time Faith was accepted, but significant life changes caused her to give up the opportunity. Not so the second time. She worked hard so if she were selected again, she’d be accepted. That acceptance came in 2008, and shortly after, she moved from her Hope Street apartment into a new InterFaith Build Habitat House on Grace Street.

Last Christmas, Faith didn’t see any presents under her tree. She thought he family had forgotten her, but then she realized, she was standing in the middle of her Christmas present. “I realized that Almighty God had not forgotten about me,” she recently wrote in a letter to the Syracuse Habitat for Humanity. “He used Syracuse Habitat for Humanity, its partners, as well as the help of many, many volunteers to make a special delivery to give me and my family this great opportunity of homeownership.”

Okay, so here’s the kismet part….

Faith used to live on Hope Street before she moved into the Habitat House that the InterFaith Team built on Grace Street.  Faith, Hope, Grace and a house build by a team of volunteers representing a diversity of religious beliefs.  Seems like this was meant to be.