Homeless mother gets Thanksgiving surprise, gifted fully-furnished home

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Sarah Wilson spent last Thanksgiving pregnant in prison. Now, the previously-homeless new mother has a home of her own, thanks to a local nonprofit.

Thanks to Holliday's Helping Hands, Wilson and her son Ryan were recently surprised with their own, fully-furnished home, complete with a Thanksgiving feast on the table. 

Wilson had been serving an eight-year sentence for drug charges. She said a week before she was arrested, "I prayed to God… I prayed to God, just something has to happen. I need to go to jail or something to get clean."

After serving 10 months, Wilson qualified for release into a program that could turn her life around. 

‘[I’m] very thankful," Wilson said about Holliday's Helping Hands. "They really helped me out through everything I've been through… I can't even express how I feel."

Katina Holliday founded the organization in 2018 to give incarcerated pregnant women rehabilitation, education, therapy and a home.

"We were able to transform someone else's life," said Holliday. "There's no better purpose on Earth than to be able to help someone else."

Wilson has now been sober for 18 months, and says she can now give her son the best life possible.

"I've worked on myself tremendously," Wilson said. "… Change is possible. Just take it one day at a time. Surrounding yourself with people that are good people is the best thing."

Wilson and her son can now live in the home as long as they want, as long as they follow the program. Holliday's Helping Hands has now given 500 families similar homes. 

"Our organization is definitely blessed to be a blessing for others," Holliday said.

For her and her son, Wilson called her new home, "the start of a new beginning, and for the rest of my life.