Marine Family Bursting With Gratitude

When Jacqueline Gomez's husband arrived at Camp Pendleton's Naval Hospital in 2006, the couple was supposed to have an important reunion. Gunnery Sgt. Cristo Gomez had been struck in the groin by a sniper's bullet in Iraq, and it would be the first time Jacqueline Gomez would see her wounded husband, the North County Times reported.

But the same day he arrived at Camp Pendleton, a pipe burst in the couple's Oceanside home. Jacqueline Gomez stayed home to deal with the flooded garage, missing her husband's arrival at the hospital just a few miles away.

The San Diego branch of Operation Homefront, a national organization of military women and wives that supports wounded service members and families of junior members of the military, and San Diego-based contractor Barnhart Inc. teamed up Saturday to provide home makeovers to six San Diego-area military families, including the Gomezes.

"I feel like I've won the lotto," beamed 32-year-old Jacqueline Gomez, as she watched dozens of volunteers scrambling around her modest Glenbrook Drive home, a couple blocks from Melba Bishop Park.

Throughout their 10-year marriage, Gomez said, she and her husband have faced a string of challenges: Cristo Gomez's injury (he is now fully recovered), his two deployments to Iraq and frequent long workdays when home, and three young children, including a 7-year-old daughter with autism.