Amanda's Family Story
Amanda loves public speaking—and she has an incredible story to tell.
Homeless at age 14, she has honed her professional skills and built a career. She’s sober. And she has regained custody of her three children, who were placed in foster care following a dangerous incident that threatened Amanda as well.
“I love to speak,” she says. “I want to be an inspiration for people that have come from nothing and don’t have a lot of family.”
In fact, one of the Pikes Peak Habitat family selection committee members who visited Amanda’s apartment – part of the application process for our program — remembered her from a speech she had given at a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) event.
“It lifts me up to do stuff like that. My life could have been taken,” Amanda says. “A lot of things happen to people, and some people just give up.”
Her family needs this opportunity.
“I don’t live in an oh-so-good neighborhood,” she says. Alcohol and drug use is prevalent. “We have a lot of people that live in the hallways, and we find a lot of drug paraphernalia. Homeless people sleep in there and leave their trash.”
And she has significant safety concerns. “I don’t know my neighbors. If something was to happen, would they care that I’m screaming? Because in a neighborhood where you hear gunshots and you hear fighting all the time and you see break-ins, people usually mind their own business.”
Despite the challenges, she is grateful to have her family reunited, and she’s proud of her children.
“My son just won a triathlon, and he was up against a sixth grader, and he’s only in the third grade!” she enthuses. “He won by minutes, which was amazing. I love him for doing that! And he’s just very active and outgoing.”
She also has twins. Her daughter “is very animated and I think she’s going to be in theater!” She describes her son as “very high-tech, very involved, like he knows how to download things and get online and he’s tech-savvy.”
Faith is extremely important to Amanda’s family. “We all focus our life around God,” she says. “We all pray to God in the morning and at night. We sing to him before each meal….They know God is one person that has saved us and protected us.”
And she’s raising her children to show compassion to others.
“It’s good to help people, and I want my kids to see that,” she says. “I want them to go and give. We take the bus, and we give snack bags to the homeless.”
The sweat equity she will invest in building her home and those of her neighbors models those values—and she also enjoys the work!
“I’m so excited to go and build other people’s houses!” she says. “I’m really good with my hands. I’m like Bob the Builder. I’ve built [my kids] playsets and playgrounds. We all had to live in a room at one time, so I just have to build something. I’m good for not just hammering in nails; I’m good at painting, I’m good at laying concrete.”
Sweat equity also gives her a chance to get to know her future neighbors. She enjoyed her initial meeting with them at the orientation for our new class of future homeowners and looks forward to living in a community.
“I’ve driven out there like five times!” she exclaims. “The houses out there are beautiful, and I think that it’s in a good neighborhood. I think it’s a secluded neighborhood; it’s not on a busy street, so the kids can ride bikes.”
She’s excited to finish her own backyard, where she envisions having a waterfall. Her boyfriend, who owns an asphalt company, plans to help her landscape the yard and volunteer on the construction site with her as she builds her home. Camping in the backyard is just one of the memories she looks forward to creating with her kids.
“We cook a lot together. We have game nights,” she says. “I have a lot of board games. I’m old-school with Uno and Yahtzee and checkers and cards and dominoes. The kids like to play their game system. They like to have family time.”
She adds, “I just can’t wait to have a dining table that fits everyone, so we can sit down. And a garden—I love to garden!”
Amanda concludes, “I can’t believe this is happening to me! A lot’s happened in my life, so to be gifted a house for my kids to grow up in and have a backyard, to be in a community with my neighbors, I’m so excited! I’m just truly grateful that you and God have chosen us for this house and that I’m going to have somewhere for my kids to grow up, and we’re not going to have to move. It’s just amazing.”
About the Interfaith Build for Unity
In a time of division, uncertainty, and fear, Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity is working together with our community to build homes, unity, and hope. While El Paso County is home to a diversity of political opinions and theological beliefs, one thing we can all agree on is that everyone deserves a safe and decent place to call home.
Since 2021, Pikes Peak Habitat has been bringing together congregations, groups, and communities from a variety of faith traditions, spiritual practices, and beliefs to volunteer, side-by-side, to build affordable homes for families in El Paso County. In March of 2022, Pikes Peak Habitat and our valued partners came together to celebrate the completion of the first Interfaith Build for Unity (IBU) home. The second IBU was completed in April 2023, and the third IBU home was dedicated in February 2024. IBU volunteer days are a time of celebrating tolerance, cooperation, and love for one’s neighbor as volunteers come together to help make homeownership possible for a local family.