The Daily Interlake

It was 7:30 a.m. - too early on a school holiday - when Sabrina Lisle roused her five children on Thursday morning. Normally, they might have grumbled a little, but when she promised them a present, they woke up right away.

They yelled in excitement when they spotted the giant Christmas box on their front porch, wondering what could possibly be in a box so big. They ripped off the paper, then stepped back when someone began tearing the box from the inside.

When Capt. Brian Lisle emerged from the cardboard, his children shouted louder still and rushed forward to hug their father. It was the first time they'd seen him since February.

"It was a great reaction, actually," Brian said. "My oldest daughter [AuBrianna, 9] and son [Jaden, 7] attacked me, and my daughter got a little teary-eyed, as did I."

Five-year-old Trinadi was in awe, Brian said, and it took Taxer, 3, a couple of hours to warm up to him. Koryanne, 1, took to her dad right away, probably because she'd heard his voice every week on the phone for the last several months.

Having Daddy home from Kuwait is the only thing her children wanted for Christmas, Sabrina said - but the kids aren't the only ones whose Christmas wishes came true.

WHEN THE Lisles purchased a home in Bigfork in January 2005, they hoped they'd found their dream home at last. Instead, they found an uninhabitable building with a daunting list of problems, just when Brian had to leave for the Middle East.

But thanks to the generosity of the Bigfork community, led largely by members of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Lisles finally have the house they've dreamed of - just in time for Christmas and Brian's discharge from the Army.

Before moving to Montana, the couple lived in Virginia for a few years, and in Georgia and Germany before that. They planned to move back to Montana when Brian was discharged in 2005. Sabrina's parents lived in Bozeman; Brian had family in Libby and Hamilton. But the Lisles wanted to make the Flathead Valley home for their four - soon to be five - children.

"I've always thought this is the prettiest place in Montana," Sabrina said.

They bought their house without ever actually seeing it. Brian's sister and brother-in-law checked it out for them, and the Lisles bought it based on their assessment. It wasn't perfect; there was a sizable mess that needed cleaning because the previous owner was very nice, "just not very responsible," Brian said.

They couldn't move until Brian's Army career was over, so they agreed to let the former owner's son live in the house until then. He could live there rent-free, the Lisles told him, as long as he cleaned the house and put paneling in the garage.

Unfortunately, Brian said, the son was even more irresponsible than his father.

"He stayed here, but he didn't do anything. He didn't even clean the fridge," Brian said. When the Lisles arrived, they found an ancient pot roast in the refrigerator, now covered with an impressive amount of mold.

The son left before the Lisles came in January 2006. While the house stood vacant, the pipes froze, resulting in water damage and rotten carpets. Mold had sprouted in more places than the refrigerator.

Their dream home was fast becoming a nightmare.

"There was a whole bunch of mess," Brian said. "It was a $200-something-thousand house, and it was a disaster we couldn't live in."

FURTHER COMPLICATING matters was Brian's decision to remain in the service. The job he'd planned on taking after the Army fell through, and the military offered him the chance to become a captain if he stayed.

He agreed, on the condition that he was given a job in Kuwait. He was already going to have to stay in Virginia while his wife and children moved to Montana, "so I figured I might as well go to Kuwait and make some money."

He was able to move his family to Bigfork, but had to leave soon after. At that point, the house was nowhere near livable.

"My wife was like, where are we going to live?" he said.

Brian's sister and her husband had recently bought a three-bedroom trailer in Bigfork, so Sabrina and the five children - at that time ranging in age from 8 to about 2 months - moved in.

Members of Brian's brother-in-law's family were also staying at the trailer: four adults and two small children. Everyone was rarely home at the same time, and about a month after the Lisles moved in, the home's owners moved to Utah. Even so, it was a tight fit, and Sabrina and the children shared a bedroom.

Brian got two weeks' leave in February and surprised his family by driving to Montana to get the house squared away. With help from his father and brother-in-law, they took care of the mold, painted the ceilings, bought supplies and ordered carpet. Sabrina and the children were able to move in about a month after Brian left for Kuwait.

There was still a lot of work to do, and family members often came by to help. Most of Sabrina's time was spent taking care of her children, however, so many projects went undone.

Then, in early November, a couple of women brought over a plate of cookies. Sabrina had seen them before at church but didn't really know them.

"They weren't assigned to me, which I thought was weird," she said, explaining that in Mormon churches, members are assigned newcomers to visit and welcome. "But it was fun, and I didn't care. I had someone to talk to."

Her husband had been gone for months, and although she had constant company from the children, Sabrina welcomed adult conversation. She gave her visitors a tour of the house, pointing out things she wanted to fix or redo.

She had no idea the women were carefully noting every word, she said.

"If I had known, I never would have said anything," she said.

ABOUT A week later, the women returned and told her they were going to help take care of some of the house's problems. Her initial reaction was to say thanks, but no thanks - they weren't poor, after all. But the women insisted their offer stemmed from gratitude, not pity.

"It was all about them saying thank you to my husband, thank you for his service in the military," Sabrina said. "They totally shocked me, because that doesn't happen very often."

In their church in Virginia, the Lisles had been just one of many military families. But in Bigfork, they stood out in a community of contractors and builders.

"They felt that because there was so many of them, there was something they could do to help out," she said.

It rapidly spread beyond the pair of women; soon at least 20 people - not all of them church members - had volunteered to help. Their goal was to have the house ready by the time Brian returned from Kuwait Dec. 20.

"Somebody just said, 'Hey, we should do something. Let's make this a great homecoming and a great Christmas.' And then it just escalated from there," a volunteer said.

A man installed tile in the entryway, and two women volunteered to grout it. Someone laid Pergo floors in the two upstairs bathrooms; another woman stained them.

The front lawn had been littered with branches since Brian's father had thinned the trees earlier in the year. A pair of women who were about Sabrina's mother's age piled the branches and built a bonfire.

"It was totally a man's job, and here are these buff little ladies out dragging branches," Sabrina said, shaking her head in awe.

Inside, a man put a banister on the steep staircase.

"It was needed very, very badly. It was a hazard the way it was," Sabrina said. "I was terrified my children would fall off the staircase."

In addition to practical fixes, the volunteers added special touches to the home. Sabrina hated her kitchen counter; the grout between the tile squares was ugly and nearly impossible to clean. But it was something she'd planned to replace at a later time, after some of the house's more pressing needs were cared for.

Then someone showed up with a new countertop.

"It was greatly, greatly, greatly appreciated," she said. "I was living OK with my countertop. It wasn't life or death or anything. But they knew I really wanted one."

Someone else fixed the front door, which was slightly crooked. The man who built the banister brought the Lisles a plaque etched with each family member's name to display in the front yard.

"It was another thing they just did not need to do," Sabrina said. "At this point, I'm like, you guys do not know when to stop, do you?"

THEY ALSO insisted on treating Sabrina to a trip to the salon. While she was gone, someone babysat the children and a group of women cleaned and organized the house.

"And it was dirty. I have five kids," Sabrina said. "At this point, I'm just like, stop!"

But they didn't stop. Someone donated a Christmas tree. The two church women who had been assigned to Sabrina brought over two weeks' worth of ready-to-bake dinners.

"They're still continually doing things. It goes on and on. It blows me away," she said.

"I know there was a lot of things they wanted to do, and they just ran out of time." She paused a moment, then added, "And maybe money. They've spent so much money on me."

She told Brian what the community was doing, but didn't send pictures of most of the work. He got home around 1 a.m. Thursday and didn't see most of the house until after he popped out of the Christmas box later that morning. When he did, he was amazed.

"That was … wow," he said. "Wow. It's nice now."

"They didn't just help," he added. "They did stuff very nice. It looks nice. It was just an abundance of, I would call it love, but we can call it help."

The volunteers poured themselves into the work, Sabrina said.

"A lot of them are probably well off, but a lot of the ones that helped me weren't. And they didn't really have time to help me," she said. "I know at times they just didn't have the time, and they did it anyway. And they were always glad to be there."

Both Sabrina and Brian say they feel a little guilty about accepting so much help.

"It's been a humbling experience. It's hard to accept help," Sabrina said. "Years ago, I wouldn't have been able to accept it. But these people, when they say, 'Call if you need help,' they really mean it."

Their generosity has inspired her to help others, she added.

"I plan on being able to give back. It might not be to the people who helped me, but I can pass it on. I feel like there's a lot more people who could use more help," she said.

"If we could all just reach out to people, so much could be accomplished. There's a lot of good that could be done. My eyes were opened."

In the meantime, the Lisles will continue the work their neighbors began on their home.

"We've dreamt about a dream house for a long time. It's beautiful," Brian said. "They just made it look like it's supposed to look."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.