The house was gutted when she first saw it.

It didn’t look like somewhere you’d move into. It looked more like something in progress, something you had to believe in before you could see it.

Lisa stood inside and tried to picture her life there.

Where would the couch go? Where would she work on assignments for nursing school? Perhaps, she could turn the second room into a guest bed for the grandchild on the way.

The house did have a sunroom, a fireplace, and a porch. That felt like a sign.

Lisa had spent most of her life moving forward without much time to stop and imagine what came next.

She was 14 when her daughter, Aisha, was born. By 16, she had left school and started working.

When Aisha got older, Lisa made sure she stayed busy: after-school programs, cheerleading, student council. That also meant working more, figuring things out, keeping everything moving.

“It was a lot,” she says now, with a laugh, because it has always been a lot.

Years passed that way. Work, parenting, figuring it all out.

She went back for her GED in her mid-20s. Then school again. Sometimes full-time, sometimes part-time. She was always adjusting to what life required at that moment.

Eventually,  Lisa enrolled in nursing school and became an LPN. Her paychecks started to look very different.

Soon, she was paying down debt and was even able to put some money aside.

Then she started thinking about buying a home, and Habitat came to mind.

When she got into the Home Journey program, she moved just as quickly.

Classes — done in two weeks. Savings — already started, then grew. She saved more than she needed, paid off her credit cards, and used a matched savings program to clear the last of her debt.

It became clear that Habitat Omaha’s Home Journey program wasn’t just about qualifying for a Habitat loan. It was changing the way she viewed and managed her money.

The day she got the keys to her home, the first thing she planned to set up was where she would study. “I’ve got a lot of homework,” she said.

Her daughter is 25 now. She has a bachelor’s degree and is working on her doctorate. She got married last year and a baby is coming soon.

That’s what home means to Lisa now. A space for her, and a space for her daughter’s new family to visit. A place that feels like an anchor more than anything else. It’s also a living testament to Lisa’s vision for her life and her daughter’s too.

“Never quit,” she says. “She can get whatever she wants as long as she sets her heart to it. I think I raised her like that.”

“I always told her, Don’t accept a no because no can turn into a maybe and maybe can become a yes.”