A new family moved into Snoqualmie this fall, and celebrated the event Thursday, Oct. 1, with an official dedication of their new home. Single mom Sunday Dador and her children received the keys to their new Habitat for Humanity home on Koinonia Ridge amid a gathering of friends, neighbors and Americorps team members.

Dador is from South Sudan and came to the United States in 2003 with her husband and daughter. When she and her husband divorced in 2006, she and her daughter moved from Iowa to Seattle and initially lived in a shelter. For the past eight years, she has worked as a sales associate for a local department store, and prior to that she was a home health care worker.

Community is important to Dador and she thinks it is important for neighbors to know each other and help each other out. She wants to raise her four children, daughters Nyegay and Noel and sons Adam and Liem, in a good community and safe environment and know that when they are outside, they are safe.

Of her new home in Snoqualmie, Dador said “I am so excited; I can’t wait to get in. The first thing I left my country for was to have enough money to buy my own home.  This is the big journey of my life.”

Her favorite part or the process has been the sweat equity; she has learned to paint and many other skills. Dador is looking forward to spending holidays with her children in their own home and looking out for them and other neighborhood children.  “I’m a mom, that’s what we do,” she said.

Koinona Ridge is the largest Habitat neighborhood in the Northwest. Fifty single family Habitat homes were built there between 2002 and 2010. The Dador home is what is known as a ‘buy-back’ or ‘recycled’ home. If a family decides to move out, Habitat Seattle-King County purchases the house and after refurbishment, sells it to another Habitat qualified low-income family. Because of this buy-back policy, Habitat Seattle-King County homes remain a permanent part of King County’s affordable housing stock.

The home was completely repainted inside and interior finishes were updated, including new flooring, countertops and lighting.

Adam Dador, age 4, takes a break from the festivities to lie in the grass of his new home.