Amelia would love more than anything to be home. After four years of moving between St. Francisville, La., Houston, Texas, and New Orleans, Amelia says she desperately misses the comforts of her own home.

"I would love to take a nice hot bath, get in my own bed, and just be home," she says. "You just don't know what it's like not to have a home." Amelia says she is so grateful to the relatives who have invited her to stay with them as she waits for her house to be rebuilt. But there's not a lot of space, she often moves from relative to relative and the cramped conditions are wearing on her. Digging through boxes just to get dressed in the morning is a constant reminder of what she's lost.

"It seems like every day is a struggle for me," Amelia says.

Amelia, who raised her son, Jerry, 30, with her husband in Gentilly, worked in the criminal district court in New Orleans before the storm.

Her husband passed away several years before Katrina, but her son was nearby and her granddaughter, Clinique, and her niece spent a lot of time playing at her home.

"Life was beautiful before Katrina," Amelia says. "It was peaceful, I was just working, going to church, coming home… living. And here comes the storm and it just tore my life apart. It shredded it."

Amelia and her husband had purchased their home about five years before Katrina. A native New Orleanian who had weathered many storms, Amelia didn't expect the catastrophic flooding that occured after Katrina. Still, she and her family heeded warnings and evacuated to St. Francisville, La. At first, it seemed like New Orleans had dodged a bullet. The storm passed, and Amelia and her family were ready to head back home. "We were watching television and they said we couldn't go back, that you weren't even allowed in the city, that's when it started to sink in," Amelia says. "That really put me in a state of shock."

Amelia eventually went back to the city to assess the damages on her house. Her neighbors told her that the water had risen above the roof. The damage was complete, destroying everything in the house.

The family then relocated to Houston, what they thought would be temporarily, but turned into two years. Amelia says Houston was much different than New Orleans, but she barely noticed.

"When you've suffered a great loss like that – I mean I lost everything except my family, everything I had in my home – I was depressed and I wasn't really focusing in Houston as a place," she says. "It was just somewhere to survive until you get back home."

She was finally able to move back to Gentilly in February 2008. Amelia had received insurance money, which had to be used to pay off her mortgage, as well as money from Road Home. Although it wasn't enough to completely rebuild, she hired a contractor to begin the work.

But the contractor only did some of the work he promised and took off with the money Amelia had paid him.

"He took just about every dime I had," Amelia says. "That was another blow, just a devastating hit. It took me to a whole other level."

Without the funds to rebuild, Amelia felt like she had nowhere else to turn.

"I just thought, ‘How am I going to do it? How am I going to get my home done?" she says. "I felt really hopeless."

She saw a news segment describing different organizations that helped people rebuild their homes. That's when she called the St. Bernard Project. When she found out her home would be rebuilt by SBP, she says a weight lifted off her shoulders.

"It's like if there was a big old brick weighing down on you and someone takes it off," she says. "I felt like I could breathe again."

Luis, who is 60 years old, worked as a boilermaker for more than 30 years.

He was born in Cuba and came to New Orleans in 1968, moving to St Bernard Parish 20 years ago. He has two grown children, a son, daughter, and a loving stepson.

Before Katrina, Luis lived in a rented house in Chalmette. As the storm approached, he evacuated with his children to Lafayette, LA, where they stayed for several days camping out in a local park.

The family thought they would just return to Chalmette after the storm blew over, but they soon realized that wasn't an option.

Luis went to Alabama where he could find boiler work, and got a FEMA trailer with his children. They were moved from one FEMA camp to another for longer than seven months. After leaving the FEMA camp, the family traveled to Kenner, then Houma, then back to Kenner. The family thought they had finally found their way home when they returned to St. Bernard Parish in 2007, but they found themselves homeless with nowhere to go.

Luis currently rents a room in Kenner, but hasn't given up on the idea of returning home. He bought a wrecked, 1800 sq. foot house on Carney Drive in St. Bernard Parish, which he hopes to someday call home.

Luis has worked on the house as time has allowed, but he also continues to work as a boilermaker so he can pay the bills and retain his health insurance. Luis has suffered from diabetes for years.

The strain of it all took its toll on Luis in 2007 when he suffered from a major stroke, landing him in the hospital and then lengthy, strenuous physical rehabilitation.

After the stroke, Luis worked on and off, and used all of his funds trying to rebuild the house.

Luis is anxious to finish the house and to have a place to call home. The stress from the storm, constantly moving, and fighting to keep his job has not been easy on Luis or his family. Within the last few months he has suffered from another stroke and will have to undergo surgery in the future. Once Luis house is completed, he will be able to retire in ease. For more than two years he has resiliently worked to put his house together.

Luis and family can't wait to call St. Bernard Parish home again.

"It's quiet here and is a good place—except the water came in—hopefully this will never happen again. I just hope that I can live in my house, and be there for when I die." Luis said. "I'm not a young man, but I am 60 years, and hopefully I can live some more years to help others who have been through this too."

Luis wants to give back to the community that has continued to support him and his family. Luis has offered to donate his old truck that is filled with tools to the St. Bernard Project to thank them for the support and concern they have shown him and his community.