By the time the family moved into the tiny apartment they’d found on the corner of East Seventh Street and South Third Street in the Central Florida town of Delray Beach, the family was already planning a career.
“My mom would say, ‘Oh, they’re going to get married,’ ” said Marcella Carlino, who grew up in the town and was named to the Delray Heights School Board in 2008.
But that wasn’t the plan when Carlinos youngest son, Jordan, was born in May of 2015.
Carlinoa, now 28, was expecting a second child.
“I was like, ‘They’re not going to have a baby, they need to buy this place,'” Carlinola recalled.
Carinola and her husband were able to buy a place on East Seventh for $4,200 and have their son Jordan now.
But their dream to get Jordan into aviation was not going away.
The couple needed a home in Delray for their first child.
So they asked the city of Delroy Hills to take over the property from the city and help them move out of their apartment.
They have a lease on the house and they had to pay off their mortgage, but they didn’t have much to give up.
They were able find a vacant house in Delroy Heights for $1,400.
They wanted to make sure the house was ready to be used.
So the couple called the city, and Delroy Hill’s planning department approved the request.
But there were some problems.
“They didn’t really want to give us the option to do it,” said Carlinello.
“And I said, ‘Well, I’ve never done this before.'”
The couple said they thought it was going to be tough to get approval.
“We were like, we have to do something,” Carlinia said.
“There’s not going be a lot of time to negotiate, or there’s not really a lot that we have that can be done.”
So they set up a meeting with the planning department and Carlinolas plan was approved.
And it turned out that the house in which they lived was going up for sale, and Carinolas son Jordan was going on a cruise to the Bahamas.
So that’s when Carinolans son and his parents were able the opportunity to buy the place.
“The town gave us the green light to come in, so I didn’t think that was going too far,” Carinole said.
But they were worried about Jordan’s safety.
The city says it’s investigating the case.
But in the meantime, Carlinota said she was worried.
“What if we had to do anything?
What if we couldn’t do anything?” she said.
So, they called the planning office and asked for a few things.
They said that if they wanted to take the house out of the lease, they had two months to get a city permit.
And they had a few more things to go through.
“So they came back with a list of things to do, and I was like what?
They didn’t give me any time?” said Carinolina.
So Carlinora and her family took a chance.
They called the landowner, and the city gave them the greenlight to move in.
“It was really, really a dream come true,” Carolinello said.
The Carlinas say they were lucky because they had the help of a local business owner, a community member, and a friend.
“At the end of the day, the most important thing is my son,” said Marcia Carolinola.
“He was born, and we wanted to live, and that’s what mattered.”
The couple says they’re still in the process of moving in, but Carlinolans youngest son has been able to get to Florida and get a job working at the local airport.
They also plan to get out of debt, and they have a mortgage on the property.
“For the first time in our lives, we’re doing something,” said Jordan.
“Everything is working for us.
We’re going out there, we get to do what we want to do.”
The family hopes to open their second shop in Delro, and now they’re just trying to figure out how to make it work.
“You can’t say it’s easy.
You can’t do it overnight,” said Carol.
“But we’re really excited to be able to give him a better future, a better life,” said her husband.
“His dream is to be an astronaut.
I just think he’s so passionate about it.”
