It was with seven children between them and one on the way when Alexis and her fiancé realized their home was in desperate need of repair.
Before they could take any action, Alexis faced unexpected complications with her pregnancy.
“I went into the hospital on bed rest with my son. I had not been able to do anything in the house,” Alexis explained. “In fact, I was there in the hospital trying to get our water heater replaced.”
Her son ended up being born at 29 weeks. The needed repairs were pushed off as Alexis and her family focused on the health of their newest addition. Due to complications in his recovery, Alexis’s son spent extended time hospitalized.
“My son was in the hospital for basically two years of his life, so I was not working,” she said.
To make matters worse, a handyman she hired did more harm to her home than good.
“He scammed us out of hundreds of dollars, and I realized that he was coming here to take money and overcharge,” Alexis explained.
When her medically fragile son was close to coming home, Alexis worried she wouldn’t have a safe home for him.
“[The gutters] were hanging off and everything,” she shared. “Because he has a lot of medical issues and [equipment] he would have to be in, I was going to put him in the dining room. The gutter outside was hanging by that window, so when it’s windy it bangs against the window. I was scared that the window was going to break.”
She also worried about the electrical outlets. “The plugs downstairs were loose, and he’s dependent on his equipment to keep him breathing,” Alexis said.
Without the time or funds to deal with the repairs on her own, Alexis was overwhelmed. That’s when she found Home Repairs Ministries from a Facebook ad.
She initially contacted the Home Repairs team about the gutters, but this repair unfortunately fell out of Home Repairs’ scope of work. However, they still visited the home to see what else they could solve for Alexis and her family.
“They repaired my kids’ bathroom that was rotted out. They fixed all of the electrical outlets and went beyond my expectations. They checked almost every outlet [in the house].
“They went around the house and fixed just little things. They fixed the door in my room. They fixed a wire that was exposed on the roof I had never even noticed. They fixed the stair railing because they were saying it was too loose and didn’t want the kids to fall,” she shared. “They were amazing!”
Later, when Alexis learned that her 35-year-old furnace posed a carbon monoxide risk to her children, she asked Home Repairs if they knew about another organization that could help.
A few days later, Home Repairs found a new furnace for the family and came back to install it.
“They were here for eight hours,” she explained. “[Home Repairs Volunteer] Anthony came out a couple of times because there was a piece that kept going out so the heat wasn’t running. He came out in the cold and in the rain and stayed for hours, making sure he got the thing done.”
In addition to helping replace her furnace, Anthony noticed more needs around the home and chose to donate the parts and materials to help Alexis find peace of mind.
“I cleaned her air conditioning coils that were contributing to high power bills in the summer,” he explained. “I also had an associate of mine replace her garbage disposal.”
For Anthony, giving back is a blessing.
“It’s easy to feel like things are hopeless when life challenges you with one thing after another. Relieving someone of one of those challenges is a deeply gratifying experience,” he shared.
The team’s kindness also encouraged Alexis in some of the hardest moments of her life.
“I want to express just how truly blessed I am. I don’t know what I would’ve done without them,” she said.
“There are no words that can express how grateful I am to them.”
