April Foster looks forward to the day her children can play outside in their own back yard, decorating their rooms with Batman and princesses and knowing they will grow up in a house she worked hard to build.
The 35-year-old single mother is Mansfield’s newest Habitat for Humanity homeowner, driving nails and carrying boards to build a three-bedroom, two-bath house for her son Donovan, 5, and daughter, Chloe, 3.“I think it’s going to be a sense of relief,” said Foster, who lives in an apartment in Fort Worth. “It’s going to be amazing for them to have a place to go outside the house. Where I live now, they don’t even have a play area.”Like other Habitat homeowners, Foster has to volunteer 250 hours on her home and other Habitat builds, then repay the cost of her $79,000 in a 30-year no-interest loan. Local Habitat organizers raised $66,000 to build the house and now volunteers are helping build it.“It’s so great knowing that someone is going to be able to live here,” said Emma Seidler, 22, an Americorps volunteer from St. Louis. “It’s not just a project, it’s someone’s house. They couldn’t build these houses without all these people here.”Seidler and a small army of volunteers swarmed over the construction site Saturday, sawing, hammering and raising the rafters on Foster’s new home.Construction on Mansfield’s ninth Habitat house began Feb. 15 and should be completed by mid-summer, said Kapreta Johnson, sponsor relations manager for Trinity Habitat for Humanity.“Every time I’m out here and see a new house, it’s a new wave for new homeowners,” Johnson said. “They’re building this dream of home ownership and making it come true.”For Foster, it’s a dream that doesn’t seem true yet.“It hasn’t sunk in completely,” she said. “I feel like I’m still working toward my volunteer hours.”Foster completed her hours last summer, but now she is working on her own home.“This is where my kids will grow up and have a sense of stability,” she said. “It’s rewarding to know that I worked so hard for this and it will be ours.”Amanda Rogers, 817-473-4451 Twitter: @AmandaRogersNM
