"Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten."- From the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch.

This quote seemed to be very appropriate for the events that have transpired in the past week. On Wednesday night I drove to Huntington, West Virginia to pick up my sister (Jess) and my best friend ( Heather). They were visiting me for a long weekend and they actually got to come volunteer with me on Thursday. It was really cool to have my family from back home meet some of my Kentucky Family. Immediately my participants fell in love with them and treated them like family and like they had known them for years. By the end of the day we were all listening to our participant tell us stories about her family from Michigan and she was giving us all hugs as we left for the day. This is probably my favorite part of volunteering in Housing. We get to know our participants so well that they become  our family because most of the time we are working on their house every day for at least a month if not more depending on how big the job is. So not only did Jess and Heather get to meet my participant but they also got to meet the whole Floyd House and some of the other volunteers from Johnson House. It was really cool to see people from both of my families in the same place.

Then on Saturday I was able to take them to Harold's (my volunteer life manager) house and spend some time with his family. Harold's house is probably one of my favorite places in eastern Kentucky. He has lots of animals and there are always new additions every time we visit. Some new additions were a pot belly pig, a few more goats, a peacock, some guinea hens and another bunny. While we were there we got to see all the new animals, as well as get some good pictures with them. We also learned a lot about the different types of chickens they had and we  got to hang out with Harold's kids, which is always fun!

Two people that I have grown really close with since I came to Kentucky would be Tony (my crew leader) and his  wife Liz. Their kids are all grown and out of the house and they have kind of adopted me since I got here or maybe it's more like I've adopted them. Anyway since I've been here they have both been there to listen to me and give me advice which has been very helpful since my parents are hundreds of miles away. Not only have I grown close to them but I've grown attached to their animals too. They have 3 dogs: Sadie, Kehma, Silas and 2 cats. I've probably grown attached to them since I get the pleasure of watching them all when Tony and Liz go out of town. All 3 of their dogs have different personalities too. Sadie is crazy and off the wall with energy, while Kehma is an old lady and Silas always greets you by slobbering all over you. They are all so fun to take care of, even though at times they do drive me crazy especially when they drag you around the yard. But last night I had a reality check. Myself and a few of the other volunteers were at Tony and Liz's house for a campfire and Kehma and Silas were running around outside. Silas especially likes to chase cars, which is not good considering his fur is all black and its hard to see him at night. So last night he got out of the yard through the hole in the fence and unfortunately he got too close to a car and was hit. I'll never forget that sound I heard when he got hit. We finally found him standing in the creek, but he was in bad shape and being in eastern Kentucky the nearest vet is about 30 minutes away, so needless to say by the time we got him to the vet it was too late. I never thought losing a dog would be so upsetting, but it was because he was a part of the family. Silas showed up at Tony and Liz's house one day back in March and kind of adopted them, at that point he was still a puppy, maybe 6 weeks old. So even though Silas was a dog, he was still part of our family and he will be missed very much and never forgotten.

Kate Stefanowicz is a long-term volunteer in CAP's Housing program. She lives in Floyd Volunteer House. You can see more of her pictures from the week below.