Helen Hardges has a favorite quote, one attributed to the poet Carl Sandberg, that she lives by: “Nothing happens unless first we dream.”

She dreamed, and on Saturday, one of those dreams came true, as the Stadium Drive home that will soon belong to her and her family was dedicated by Habitat for Humanity.

“You have given me and my kids everything, whether you know it or not,” Hardges told volunteers and Habitat board members who came out for the official ribbon-cutting, blessing and prayer. Seated on her new front porch next to her daughters, Hardges wiped away tears and offered thanks.

The family is the 23rd for which the local Habitat for Humanity has made the dream of homeownership come true, said executive director Abraham Green. Worldwide, the Christian non-profit helps millions become homeowners.

Green said he hopes Hardges’ home and the one next door at 1005 Stadium Drive, which was dedicated last week, will be ready for occupancy in about two weeks. Still to be completed are cabinets and countertops, interior doors, final plumbing details and air conditioning. Both homes are about 1,400 square feet and cost around $70,000 to build, Green said.

At the rear of the properties, a wooden fence will also be extended from a third Habitat-built home on the other side of Hardges’, which was constructed and occupied last year.

Property for the three Stadium Drive homes was donated by Vicksburg’s First Presbyterian Church, which also sent a core group of volunteers every Wednesday night for months to paint, put down floors and perform other labor, Green said. Other volunteers came from Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and Bowmar Baptist Church, which is partnering with Habitat to build the next home on Roosevelt Drive, he added

Hardges, 42, who works two jobs — child nutritionist at Sherman Avenue Elementary School and housekeeper at a local inn — said she could hardly express how much she is looking forward to the day she moves in to the new home with her daughters, Kimberly, 17, a senior at Warren Central High School and head drum major for the Big Blue Band, and Kiara, 8, a third-grader at Sherman Avenue, and her nephew, Henry Hardges, 12, a seventh-grader at Warren Central Junior High.

“I just feel joyful,” she said.