DALLAS — Every morning, Felicia Melton sticks to a strict schedule. She wakes up her three children, changes them, gives them breakfast and prepares them for school and daycare.
It’s the ordinary routine parents are familiar with, but for Melton, her daughter Xylia, and twin boys Xyaire and Xander, it means everything.
Starting a new day in a home of their own is a testament to how much they’ve overcome.
The simple moments inside of their Dallas condominium are the most stability her family has had in a long time.
“It was the perfect storm… is what I wanna [sic] call it,” said Melton.
Last year, around the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Melton’s family lost nearly everything. It all started when she, like so many others during the pandemic, lost her job.
“In three days I had no home, within a month and a half, I had no husband and after two months, I was running out of money,” said Melton.
They ended up living in a hotel room. For her, it was rock bottom in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
Melton didn’t want her daughter Xylia to know how bad the situation had become. The young girl thought the hotel stay was a mini vacation.
“I remember her taking her to school on Tuesday and the teacher says, ‘I heard you all got a new place,’ and I about started crying,” Melton said. “I was like, ‘It’s not a new place…we lost our home over the weekend cause I lost my job.”
Alone, and battling post-partum depression, the newly-single mom turned to Interfaith Family Services of Dallas for help.
The non-profit moved her family into a furnished, fully-stocked apartment for nine months and provided them the essentials to survive.
Beyond that, Interfaith, which empowers families in crisis to break the cycle of poverty, helped Melton transform her life. The non-profit helped her through their program, which gave her the tools for success.
Melton went through financial coaching, therapy, job help, and much more. It was enough to help her turn her life around.
“God removed everything out of my life that I did not need at one time,” Melton said. "Because it would have broke me to have it go in spurts. He stripped everything away. Pulled me down to my bare bottom. Have faith in me is the message that I learned. Interfaith gave me a little bit more faith."
"They offered me a home. Who offers you a free home when you have nothing? Nobody," she said.
She completed the program, got a new job working from home and found a new place to live for her young children.
Sometimes, all you need is a little help.
“It makes me all emotional, cause that’s the only thing they asked, complete the program. That’s it,” said Melton.
Through all the hardship she and her children have faced together, there is hope for brighter days ahead.