Estefanye will be the first person in her family to own a home. And hopefully, she says, she’ll be the first of many future homeowners in her family.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to have my own home, where I can see my kids grow up and then pass it down to them,” says Estefanye, a 26-year-old single mother of four young children. “I wanted to show my kids that anything can happen if you put in the work.”
Her dream of affordable homeownership, stability and having an opportunity to pass on generational wealth to her children is getting closer by the hour. Estefanye, who was welcomed into Lancaster Lebanon Habitat for Humanity’s first-time homebuyers program in September of 2024, is working toward meeting 100 sweat equity hours of the total 250 that are required in order to be matched with a Habitat house.
Not that it’s been easy.
Here’s what a typical day for Estefanye looks like lately:
She wakes up at 6 a.m. and gets her four children ready for school and daycare. Then she drives 52 minutes from her two-bedroom apartment in Lebanon, which she shares with her brother, to Lancaster to volunteer at a Habitat construction build. After putting in an eight-hour shift, she drives 52 minutes back to Lebanon and picks up her kids from school and daycare, makes dinner, then she gets ready for school too. Estefanye is currently enrolled in a phlebotomy training course where she’s learning how to draw blood intravenously from patients. After school, she heads back home for a few hours to spend time with her children and put them to bed. Around 10:30 p.m., she drives to her part-time, third-shift job as a resident aide at a Lebanon-based healthcare facility for seniors. After putting in a four-hour shift, she heads back home for a few hours of sleep and then she does it all again.
“You always gotta push yourself and keep going,” says Estefanye. “Because your kids are watching, and it teaches them they’ve got to keep going.”
Estefanye also tries to reinforce the importance of lifelong education to her young children.
“I always encourage education,” says Estefanye. “Even when my kids don’t want to go to school, I say ‘Mommy’s got to go to school too.’”
Estefanye is on track to graduate from the phlebotomy program offered at a local community college in the spring. After graduating, she plans on becoming an EMT .
Taking care of others comes naturally to Estefanye. She not only looks after her four young children, but she’s worked at a local healthcare facility for seniors for about six years. She was on staff during the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“The best feeling is knowing that I put a smile on [the residents’] faces. I’ve built a lot of relationships and love for them,” says Estefanye. “I enjoy what I do and [the residents] know that I’m going to come back tomorrow. They love knowing that they have somebody who cares for them.”
Estefanye was encouraged by her mentor, who she met when she joined a program for teenage mothers, to apply for the Habitat homeownership program.
At the time, she was getting out of an abusive relationship and living in a small apartment with numerous structural and safety issues, including a bathroom floor that had caved-in, rodent infestations and mold problems. Her landlord at the time was mostly unresponsive and generally unwilling to help. She’s since moved in with her brother.
“The babies were getting sick,” says Estefanye. “And it was, like, very overwhelming and discouraging.”
Estefanye says she was initially nervous and not entirely comfortable about the idea of applying for the Habitat program. But, since partnering with Habitat, she’d embraced the idea of stepping outside of her comfort zone.
“If you’re uncomfortable, that means there’s growth,” says Estefanye. “So, I always try to put myself in uncomfortable situations.”
She’s also picked up a lot of valuable and practical new skills while volunteering at Habitat construction sites.
“It definitely makes me more confident. Having the opportunity to be a part of this program, I’ve spoken to people who have a lot of experience, so I’m learning a lot of things I can apply to my home,” says Estefnaye. “It will be less expensive than calling somebody to get it done. It’s a great opportunity for me, and, for my kids too, because that’s money I’m going to save in my pocket for their future.”
