ALTON • Micah Scruggs couldn't afford new Christmas decorations for her home this year, but the old tree still looks pretty good in the living room.

"We had a ball putting it up and popping popcorn and baking cookies," she said. "And now we have a fireplace with a mantle where I can actually hang the Christmas stockings."

Until a few months ago, Scruggs, 31, her husband, Shaune, 36, and their two boys — Mauriyon, 3, and Shaune Jr., 6 — were living in a two-bedroom apartment in Alton.

The rent and utility bills kept them from saving money even though she and her husband each worked two jobs.

When state budget cuts cost her husband's primary job, the couple got behind on their bills. When she got laid off, the couple got farther behind and eventually made the tough decision to file for bankruptcy.

Scruggs had no way of knowing then that a bond she had formed more than a dozen years before would help her and her family get a three-bedroom home.

"I can't believe how everything worked out for us," she said. "God definitely answered my prayers."

Back in the late 1990s, Scruggs was an 18-year-old high school dropout. Things changed when she heard about an adult education program at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, and she enrolled in classes to get her GED.

It was there that she met Val Harris, who now directs the program.

"She really encouraged me and pushed me to not only get my GED but go on to college," said Scruggs. "She was absolutely a great mentor."

Harris was equally impressed with Scruggs.

"She was a star with a big personality who showed people what they could achieve," she said. "When we made a video to promote the GED, Micah was in it."

Scruggs did go on to college. She got an associate's degree and completed some CPA training. She married Shaune, a Navy veteran. They started a family, and things went well for them until 2008 when the recession got into full swing.

After the couple filed for bankruptcy, Scruggs said she knew her family had to find another place to live, but she didn't know how they could afford one.

A friend told her about Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that helps families buy rehabbed or new homes interest free.

Scruggs filled out an application. She figured her family was a long shot for the one home that the Alton chapter of Habitat awarded every year.

What she didn't know was that a year before, her old community college had started a new program called YouthBuild, which teaches young people basic math and English skills by doing building projects. To get the program started, the city of Alton had donated an old brick home that was in serious disrepair.

Four different groups of students worked on the home, first gutting it and then putting it back together.

Harris, her former mentor, also serves on the Habitat board and had recommended that the nonprofit buy the rehabbed home to donate to a family. Harris said that the couple's work ethic put them ahead of the competition. Because Habitat is the mortgagee for the home, the family's ability to keep up with their payments is key.

So in July, Scruggs and her family moved into the house that was rehabbed by other young people just like her who were trying to put their lives back together.

"It was kind of a miraculous chain of events," said Harris.

For Scruggs and her family, so far things are going well. They've been able to make all their payments, and their utility costs are cheaper than they were at their apartment.

Her husband has a job as a security guard. She's been volunteering twice a week at her children's school, and she's working part time as a bank teller.

"I just think this house was a blessing for everybody all the way around," she said.