Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Tonight I'm watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (The Tom Family in Fairfield, CA) and I'm woman enough to admit that I'm sitting here crying.

This home was built approximately 1 mile from my house in California.

I remember the first morning driving to work and some guy in a blue shirt is waving at me to slow down....I mean waaaayyyyy down. So I did. And grumbled because I was running late to work. When I came home that evening from work the construction crews were still there. Of course I was curious as to what was going on, but in California you really don't pay much attention around you. It's too busy all the time to do that.

I found out the following day that Extreme Makeover was building a house. They couldn't get all their equipment into the small neighborhood the house faced so they tore down a section of an 8-10' high brick fence behind the house that ran along East Tabor Ave. All work was done from East Tabor, the road I went to and from work every day.

I love reality television so from that point I paid careful attention, very careful attention.

And I gotta say that they build these houses in 7 days. It was amazing seeing the lumber for the walls and roof on the road one afternoon at lunch, only to come home that afternoon and see the roof going on...words can't even describe how hard these folks work. What they fit into the small lots that California homes are on...was just amazing. A 3 story house with an elevator, a pool in the backyard, it was quite simply in a word- Amazing. John Laing Homes paid off her mortgage and a trust of $300,000 was started in the girls' names .

Now seeing the episode just made it all hit home. I know this neighborhood, I drove by this house twice a day, I shopped at the Sears Ty went to. Tears poured down my cheeks as Mark Willis sang "Don't laugh at me" to Faith. I'll never hear that song again without thinking about how one simple act or look can hurt someone's soul.

This isn't a put-on or a show-off, it's a real family with real faces. Just real people who just want to help and make a difference.

It makes you believe there is still goodness in the world.

Welcome home Tom Family.