When people look at the Williams you see two different types of people coming together as one. Emmitt was born and raised in Galveston, Texas in the same house since childhood. I, on the other hand, was born in Reno, Nevada bouncing from one place to another. My senior year, I moved in with my grandparents and started attending Ball High School. While attending Ball High, Emmitt and I became high school sweethearts. As the school year came to an end, the Williams had two surprises coming — Emmitt enlisted into the army and was set to go to Basic in August of 2013, and I found out I was pregnant with a girl and was due September 2013. When Emmitt got shipped to Basic, I stayed in Texas where I felt alone, insecure and unstable. After several discussions, we decided to place our child up for adoption. Our beautiful daughter lives in a loving and stable family now in Wisconsin but never away from our hearts as we keep in contact with her daily.
After basic training, Emmitt duty station was in JBER, Alaska where he was a Diesel All-Wheeled Mechanic. While there, we ended up having a little boy — Emmitt Williams, Jr., also known as EJ, born on January 9, 2015. During that excitement, we also received news that Emmitt was being deployed to Kuwait in February of 2015. As Emmitt left to his deployed station I moved back to Texas to live with the in-laws. In February 2017, Emmitt was honorably discharged from the Army, and joined me and baby EJ in Galveston at his parents. Once Emmitt was able to find employment, we moved out of his parent’s house and into income-based apartments. Our case worker encouraged us to participate in the parenting class sponsored and supported by Galveston county. The parenting class offered parenting advice, and support, even diapers and books from the diaper bank. This class helped me gain the confidence and the ability to become the best mother for our son.
Habitat for Humanity was referred by the same case manager for home ownership and, for once, I felt like my family didn’t have to bounce from place-to-place, and to provide EJ the stability he deserves; for the Williams to have a home we can call our own. With that in mind, we applied for Habitat for Humanity in 2017. Many long and stressful weeks went by anticipating a call, the call that would change our lives forever, the call that the Williams got accepted. We finally received that call. I cannot express the gratitude I have for Bay Area Habitat for Humanity and their staff. Thank you BAHFH!