Georgia family of 9 gets house fully furnished by nonprofit: "God provided a way"

Having a yard and owning a home was something that 33-year-old Cody Lanphear and his wife, 34-year-old Emily Anderson, say they never thought possible.

Lanphear and Anderson have seven kids and are recent first-time homebuyers. Both said they've experienced homelessness and prison, while Anderson said she also spent a period of time battling addiction to the point of losing her kids.

"A lot of my family members suffered from addiction," Anderson said. "I saw all that at a young age, so that's pretty much what I thought was normal."

"I didn't believe that it was possible that I could ever have something like this [buy a home], especially given my background," Lanphear said. "There was actually multiple times in my life where I've been homeless. I've lived in tents, run-down trailers without any water, power, food in the shelves. I've been in a place in my life where I have to go to Dollar General and steal what I was eating or beg other people."

Before moving into their new home three months ago, Lanphear said he and his wife both found God, turned their lives around, and saved money, all leading up to them making their first major purchase.

"All I had to do was surrender and let God do his thing," Lanphear said. "God had his hand on every aspect of every challenge. Every situation that arose, he provided a way through it."

Unbeknownst to Lanphear, his family of nine was nominated and selected to have their new home fully furnished for free through the nonprofit organization Rooted Interiors.

"There was no way that we would've been able to buy beds for the kids, tables, chairs, living room furniture, because I had already expended all my funds on getting the house in order to provide the kids with a better future," Lanphear said. "But God provided a way through Rooted Interiors."

Rooted Interiors, Inc. was started in 2023 by Kristina McCalla. The nonprofit is based in Georgia and serves both the Peach State and North Carolina with a mission to transform lives through design by providing complete interiors and fully furnished homes to those emerging from homelessness. They custom design and fully furnish trauma-informed havens where families and individuals can plant roots and thrive.

McCalla has an extensive background in interior design, but after multiple professional ventures, a life-changing personal moment led her to found the organization.

McCalla told CBS News Atlanta that the day she was baptized was the day God revealed a vision to her, showing her how she'd utilize her talent and heart for people to shine through giving back. She also carries a level of empathy due to personal experiences of people around her who experienced homelessness at one point in their lives.

"Our mission is to fully furnish homes for families emerging from homelessness," McCalla said. "We do more than furnish homes. We create environments where families can finally begin to heal. Being able to live functionally in a home does have a major impact on your mental health, physical health, and emotional health, so to these families who have already gone through so much to secure a home, for us to take away that financial burden and to provide them a place of peace, a place where they can rest, exhale, and shift their mindset from surviving to thriving, that is the goal of Rooted Interiors."

To date, the organization has served more than 100 people and helped dozens of families save thousands of dollars. McCalla said the furniture is donated from the community, and without community support, fully furnishing homes would not be possible.

"I see them. They may not feel seen. They may feel overlooked in the world, but I see them, and I hear them," she said.

McCalla said selected families are notified, and the organization meets with them to gauge their interests in furniture. From there, the families are asked to leave for several hours before returning home to their surprise makeover of a fully furnished home with necessities known as rooting day.

Lanphear and Anderson said they hope their kids will learn from this act of kindness and will implement it as an example of lending a helping hand when you're able to.

"Every choice you make from this moment forward can change your future," Lanphear said.

Anderson also said the home carries immense significance, not only because of the help from Rooted Interiors, but because the home is a reflection of her nephew who was killed a few years ago.

The Georgia mother said the house holds significance through its flowers and the colors associated with them, along with the paint and how the home is put together. She said she knows he would be proud of how she has turned her life around.

To learn more about Rooted Interiors, click here.