Excerpts of the exchange between President Bush and former Talbert House resident Tami Jordan Monday at Talbert House:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Saving America one soul at a time. Speaking about good souls, we've got Tami Jordan with us. She is - she's an inspirational person. Why don't you inspire? Tell us your story.

TAMI JORDAN: Well, actually, I'm one of the success stories from the Talbert House.

A few years ago, I made a poor decision. It pretty much turned my life upside down. I was incarcerated for three years. And after my incarceration, I was released to the Talbert House, transitioned to the Talbert House.

During that time that I was released, one of the aspects of the program was for me to obtain employment. After being there for about two weeks, I was employed. At that time, I had to start to rebuild my family. Right now, I've been married for 18 years. I have four beautiful children, which - at that time we owned our own home. I lost my home, my job, as well as my family had to be separated because of this.

But with the Talbert House, they helped me to start to rebuild my family, rebuild my life. I had a job. So the next part I had to focus on was to rebuild my family.

One of the programs that they have which I started with them was to set up a savings account.

And they worked with me on budgeting and planning for the future. So upon my completion of the program, I came out with a savings account where I was able to obtain nice housing for my family, as well as a car for me to be able to get back to work.

I'm still employed at the position that I worked at. I have since been promoted. I am now in a position where I help people. I am able to take what I learned from the Talbert House and give back to the people who come to me for help. Thank you.

BUSH: Is that your family down there?

JORDAN: Yes, it is.

I honestly don't think that I - I think my story would be different if I didn't have the support of my family, my church, my friends, the Talbert House, who pushed me, encouraged me, and actually gave me the opportunity to step back into society and once again to become successful. Like I said, I'm successfully employed. I'm very happy what I do, and I'm not stopping.

BUSH: There you go!

JORDAN: I look forward to the future now.

BUSH: Thank you very much. You did great.

JORDAN: Thank you. Thank you.

BUSH: I think I see four very proud children.

JORDAN: Yes, right here, and my baby.

BUSH: Yeah, and your baby.... OK, one's a nephew, a proud nephew.

Auntie did a good job, didn't she?

Thank you very much. I loved your story. There's nothing like having a story like this to be able to share with people.

I'll never forget, when I was the governor of Texas, I went to a prison unit. I decided to turn over a wing of the prison to a faith-based program. Again, the attitude was whether or not the prisoners would come out and not go back in - the recidivism rate, could it be lowered if we had a faith-based initiative in the prison unit?

And so I went to see it, as the governor. Out comes the prisoner choir. And one of my favorite hymns is "Amazing Grace." And of course I got a lot of my mother in me, so I immediately jumped in line with the prisoners singing, "Amazing Grace." You know, like 10 white suits and me. They weren't exactly suits, they were like - you know. You know the kind of suit I'm talking about? ... Jumpers, yeah. And anyway, we're swinging back and forth. And on the front page of the Houston Chronicle was Bush arm in arm with a guy in prison for 20 years. Let me tell you something, I welcomed some people to the White House who had been involved in this program. And I looked at the man sitting next to me in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, and sure enough, it was the guy who I was arm in arm with singing "Amazing Grace!"

You can go from prison to be a boss, you can go from prison to the White House, just so long as you have somebody who's there willing to take you by the hand and say, "I want to help you help yourself." ...

And that's what we're here to talk about. You did a good job.