BASTROP COUNTY, Texas -- From the white trim to the front yard filled with dogs, it's the home Erichea Conti always wanted.
"Being in the house still doesn't seem real," explained Conti. "I still look at it thinking, 'This isn't my house, this isn't my stuff,' but it's very surreal."
The pictures attached to this story show the home Conti still remembers, burned to the ground after the Labor Day wildfires forced her to evacuate. Now, as others rebuild, Conti and her children have four bedrooms and two baths to call their own.
It's a new house Conti almost didn't have. In the months after the wildfire, the single mother and waitress at Roadhouse Cafe on Highway 21 found herself out of a place to live and running out of money.
"This just kind of happened," smiled Don Haluzan. On Oct. 23, Haluzan asked his waitress a question she would never forget.
"I just asked her what I could pray for her that day," explained Haluzan."She very candidly responded."
"I said, 'I need a foundation. I need my septic. I need my garage,'" Conti said.
"It kind of made me excited because I was looking for someone to help," said Haluzan. "I just called all my friends, and we met out here [Conti's home] Sunday afternoons and saw what we were going to be working with, and met Erichea and her family, and just took off from there."
Donations of a few dollars quickly added up to $40,000. Haluzan organized the rest, lining up work crews for projects. In less than a month, a new home began to appear.
A new house, garage, driveway, and a doghouse later, Conti and her family moved in just in time for Christmas.
"It's ended up being a huge blessing with God and a lot of help from my friends," said Conti.
Before the fire, she never knew she had those friends.
"This was as much a miracle to me as it was for her because I saw God work in this thing," smiled Haluzan.
It was an impact so divine, Conti's daughter inscribed it onto their brand new fence; a fitting verse for a family in need.
