MJ's Story

Hello, welcome to my house, I want to come. Maani and MJ have an incredible

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. Maani is a single woman who had no children and when MJ was born her family said they couldn't take care of him and she was determined not to let him go. in the foster system so she adopted him and took him in she is a single woman raising this smart little boy who turns out to have some disabilities. I watch it all the time and I know there are struggles, but they don't look like the ones we live in. a very cramped two bedroom apartment um MJ has a lot of supplies that he gets every month so he had the wheelchair that he had as a happy walker at the time he was still learning to walk or kick and couldn't hold his head up so he had a lot of equipment and we had mold problems that were really bad, it was even affecting the nurses so they didn't want to fix it, there were still small floods and that made things worse, so it was time to go. crowded and cramped and very narrow in the old apartment my room was super small the only thing that frustrates me is the small space makes everything so difficult my wheelchair was actually a little too wide so it couldn't fit and my room now Now it's actually bigger, uh, twice as big.

I now have a shower bench that I can sit on while I shower. Well, I thought okay, I got this. I'm going to save money and pay. In a house I didn't think it was going to be like it was when I got MJ. I'm like, okay, it's not going to cost much to raise a baby, but I wasn't thinking that this is a child with other problems. on and her nurse, Miss Rosy, once again she said to me, "um, have you thought about the habitat?", so I went and they said, oh, you have to fix the credit.

I said, oh Lord, these people can tell me how to run my business, I can't. Do it, so once they explained it to me I was like, "Okay, they taught you how to manage your bills," how to save money, how to fix little holes in the wall, they taught you a bunch of classes related to owning a home, so I love it. part when you first apply to Habitat we do housing checks we do background checks we do financial checks we make sure your need

story

is true and objective and if you meet all the criteria then you will be selected for our program and once you To get into the program you have to do so many hours of Sweat Equity and the classes, and Maani was there every time we said we needed someone in construction or we needed a class, she was there, so she just did her time and did it. what she needed to do to get ahead and MJ um was her little cheerleader he kept telling her to finish uh doing her time so he could have her house.

My favorite part about this new home is that I actually have a new aquarium and this. The house is a lot easier to move around because we have extra space, he made me feel like I belong, like MJ said we have a lot more space, he's more independent because then he couldn't get out of the bathroom that maybe he had to use. adaptive equipment like urinals or something like that now he will say I'm going to the bathroom he goes in there he knows how to get up and down we only have space for him he has a walker he walks with his nurse we have space put all these things here I love the space I love the garden I have more space For the family, usually all vacations are at my parents' house since we moved they have been here because it was very difficult for me if I go somewhere else they do not understand that they have equipment that has to contain at least three bags and when they come I don't have to carry anything here.

I have my own room, I have my own bathroom now, even if the nurses are here, I usually work. every day but if I'm here the nurses don't bother me even if I want to be bothered they don't bother me I stay in my room all day and I don't have to go out for anything other than to eat so I love the space the best part of me work is to see families receive the keys to their house see the children show us their room tell us how they are going to decorate it how they are going to play in the yard and maybe get a Dog donors are important in this process because we cannot do what we do without donations.

We have to pay for all the construction materials, all the supplies, all the submarines in advance. There is a 30-year mortgage for this, but we can't tell. Lowe's has to wait 30 years to get reimbursed for its lumber package, so without donor support we can't even begin the process. I would like to especially thank all the Habitat for Humanity donors because it's done. a big difference for me and MJ and I just want to say thank you