Brian Hambleton was tired.  After a full week of work at one of Baptist Health System’s hospitals and performing sixteen hours of sweat equity on a Habitat house (not his) in Schrader’s Haven, he sat down in a lawn chair next to his wife, Sarah.  He held her hand as the sun started to go down.  They might have been any married couple sitting in their backyard on a weekend evening, except that the 1950s bungalow Brian and Sarah were sitting behind was still uninhabitable.  It would become their home, but not yet.

The young couple – he, a nurse; she, a homemaker – wouldn’t even finish rehabilitating that house for another several months.  But they knew it was theirs; it would be their hands helping to fix their walls and their floors, making their home livable again.

This was a special concept for Brian and Sarah, as they had never owned a home of their own, and so they were drawn to the South Dade property even before work had begun.  They liked spending a quiet evening just looking at the house.

They had wished for a home of their own for a long time.  The one bedroom apartment they lived in was simply not large enough for the family Brian and Sarah intended to start, but they were constrained by the cycle of rent.  So they applied to Miami Habitat.

Over the next few months, they spent more than 500 hours building out that bungalow and helping build other families’ homes.  Then, just before Christmas, the day arrived to dedicate their new home.

As Brian’s Baptist Health co-workers gathered around, he and Sarah made a special announcement. “This couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said.  “In July, we’ll be adding to our little family.”

“Now we have a house to live in with our child.”

Congratulations to Brian and Sarah Hambleton (and a little Hambleton to be named later), this month’s featured homeowners.