A Trip Down Memory Lane

One of the best experiences of our life began in 1979 when George and I decided to be a sponsor family of two Chinese young people who had been living in Viet Nam.  In 1978,  the Communist government in South Vietnam threatened those Chinese living in Vietnam with being drafted in the army,  losing jobs, or being sent to rural areas as laborers.  Then the following year, the Vietnamese government began encouraging the Chinese to leave the country altogether.  Chinese families, many of whom had lived in Vietnam for generations, were forced to buy "exit permits," sometimes costing as much as $3,000 before they were allowed to leave.  They fled by boat, paying to board small, leaky fishing boats or old freighters.  Since they all fled Vietnam by boat, they soon came to be called the "boat people." Our young Chinese teens were given the money by their parents since they were the two oldest in the family.  They figured if these two could get out, the rest of the family could hopefully join them later.  It must have been so scary for these two young teens setting out to who-knows-where and to wonder if they would ever see their family again.  

Once at sea, they struggled with little food and water since the vessel they were on was so overcrowded, that as they were leaving the shore, a huge rock cut through the bottom of the boat, and they were forced to throw barrels of water and storages of food overboard.  Our two young teenagers (ages 14 and 15 when we finally got them) said if they had been on the boat one more day, they would have died from dehydration or starvation.  We met one young mother who was heartbroken when her baby died aboard the vessel she was on and they made her throw the baby overboard.    

Fortunately for our young teens, their boat was allowed to dock in Malaysia.  They stayed in the refugee camp there for 15 months.  Many others weren't so fortunate.  An estimated 200,000 boat people had drowned by the summer of 1979.  Others were robbed, raped, and murdered by pirates.  Even Malaysia who was getting 65,000 refugees a month threatened to "shoot on sight" new arrivals.  In the camp in Malaysia alone, 42,000 Vietnamese lived together in a one-square mile compound.   The U.S. agreed to accept 168,000 refugees a year from Southeast Asia.  

I guess that's what caused George to come home from a church meeting one morning and asked if I would be alright about having two Chinese Vietnamese who the Mormon Church was helping to sponsor through Catholic Charities.  We had just had Baby Number 6 (Kent) and the kids were all under nine years of age.  But, for some reason, George and I felt strongly this is something we should and wanted to do.

From that decision, you are seeing part of the results.  The teenage boy (Thuyen) and girl (Binh) who lived with us are now parents and Binh is even a grandmother.  In the picture above, you see Hua next to me.  She married Thuyen when he went to Mainland China to find a wife.   He did this after we helped him get his citizenship. He brought back this beautiful Chinese girl (Hua) who we truly love.  She has been the hardest worker ever!  She works 365 days a year; however, this year is the first time she is going to take Christmas Day off.  She owns restaurants, a nail salon, a bakery, a gym, and who knows what else?  I so respect what she has done since she has come to America.  She still calls us "Daddy" and "Mommy."  We were there at the birth of her first son and the girls actually gave him the name of Andrew--he is such a sharp young man.  The girl (Bingh) lives in Phoenix with her husband and children.  The number of family members who have been reunited with those two frightened teenagers that we had in our home now numbers over 100.  I have loved being a sponsor--and more than that a "Mommy" to these fantastic people! 

This is our home in Murray that the Chinese kids lived with us for about three months until we moved them to an apartment a couple of blocks away and continued helping them there.

We, also brought Baby No. 7 (Craig) home to this house.  We had many happy memories there.

Soon, we were bursting at the seams, so we built this house in the Sandy Area.  We totally designed this home and loved having the extra space, an extra-high ceiling in the garage where we had a small basketball court, a dance floor downstairs for the girls to practice, and even a kid's play room built under the rafters. 

While we lived here, George was the Bishop and the church property was basically right behind us, so that was very convenient.  From here, we made the giant step of moving to Florida.  Oh, how I hated leaving this home, but it turned out to be another decision that we were totally guided to do.  Moving to Florida and the job that George had there for 19 years turned out to be the happiest years of his career.  I loved my teaching job there, too, and the three young boys had great success and great times living in Florida.  Yes, seeing our Chinese "kids" and our former homes in Utah brought back so many memories--you really need to reminisce sometimes to realize as John Lennon is credited with saying, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."