“I thought I was a failure in all aspects”

For Darla, a single parent mother, 2010 was not a good year. “Everything fell apart, I lost everything two years ago… I was broke,” explained Darla. It is rarely easy to be a single parent mom but when everything bad seemingly happens at once, it makes parenting and life that much more difficult. “I failed at everything,” she added.

However, being a spiritual person, Darla started searching for answers. “I called out to God, I surrendered…asking Him what it was that he wanted me to do,” she confided.

Then things started going forward. Last March, Darla decided to quit smoking, something that is difficult to accomplish especially during a time of frustration, but she persevered and today she is still a non smoker. Then, her daughter’s tenth birthday last June was really the positive turning point in her life. When Darla was about six weeks old, her birth father walked out of her life.

For thirty-eight years, Darla had no idea where he was or if he was even alive. Then, in a casual conversation with a friend last summer, the discussion of her wanting to find her birth father, but not knowing where to begin or how to search for him, came up. The friend, who has been locating birth family for decades, and very successfully at that in her searches, offered to search for Darla’s birth father.

Within a week or less, Darla’s birth father was located by her friend. “I never knew my birth father, and never knew what it was like to spend time with him,” Darla said, with tears in her eyes. However, the mystery of it all came to an end when on her daughter’s tenth birthday, her birth father phoned her. Last summer, both Darla and her daughter flew to another province to be reunited with him, and spent a number of days together establishing a relationship that continues to this day.

And again this summer, something wonderful also happened for Darla and her daughter. Darla got a phone call that she would be receiving a Habitat for Humanity home.

“Since I got the call that I got this home, there has been a peace beyond any explanation…I am humbled,” she gratefully whispered.

Darla wants to encourage others that may be going through rough times to know through her story, that in their time of poverty, depression, loss of hope, feeling guilty or feeling empty that there is hope. Darla believes, ”For everything you have to go through in life, you have to go through it to be where God wants you to be.”

Receiving the opportunity for a Habitat for Humanity home has been a joy for Darla’s daughter too, who thought her mom was joking about receiving the home… until she saw her mom crying with joy. Darla’s daughter said, “it’s a better home than we had before. It is awesome and I love my bedroom!”
Darla wants to remind others, ”that sometimes God calms the storm…sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child…He has to let us go through the experience.” There are lessons to be learned she confides, ”Through it all, I learned the security of family and friends. I learned how to trust more in God, which reminded me of the scripture that those who are set free are free indeed.”

Darla closes her story by saying the home she has received for her and her daughter “Is a sweet celebration in our life.”