MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — Nearly a year after a fallen tree destroyed their mobile home, a Hamblen County family just closed on their first house.
It's a big step for Amy Parker, who's never been able to say this before:
"Welcome to the Parker house!"
She and her husband just closed on their first home in Morristown.
"I don't know what we're gonna do with all the space!"
This is a big upgrade from where the Parkers lived last summer.
They were in a trailer that was impaled by a tree during a bad storm in July of 2018.
"There's no way to describe how you feel to come from such hard struggles to get to your forever home," said Parker.
When that tree fell on their trailer, the couple and their toddler Elijah moved in to a one bedroom apartment.
That's a struggle when your son has a rare condition.
"We didn't have any place to put his therapy stuff so we'd have to get it out every day what we needed and put it back up so we would have more room," said Parker.
Elijah lives with Walker-Warburg syndrome, which affects the muscles, brain and eyes among other things, and requires a lot of medical equipment.
Now in a new two bedroom house, he finally has space to be a kid.
"We're gonna have a big summer," said Parker.
She now has things most people take for granted, like closets and a washing machine. Neither of those were in their temporary apartment. They kept their clothes in baskets on the floor.
"So I've never had a dishwasher," she said. "I have a dishwasher now."
After asking for help on GoFundMe after the tree incident, Parker received nearly $6,000 from strangers and friends. One woman she's never met donated $1,000 alone.
"God has blessed us in so many ways," said Parker. "I don't know how to say thank you enough to Him for everything He's done."
That money gave them the push they needed to finally find a home.
"Thank you. We just wanted everybody to know how thankful we were for all the help that we got last year," said Parker.
The Parkers were told their son wouldn't live past three years old.
In the past year he's received new medical equipment from East Tennessee Children's Hospital and had a tracheostomy. That's a surgery that helps him breathe a lot better.
Elijah's third birthday is in September and he's doing better than ever.
His mom is excited to throw for a big birthday party at their new home.