In Thailand, our family lived in the refugee camp at Leam Sing and then we were taken to Bangkok. The purpose of the refugee camps were to regulate the flow of refugees as well as orient them to their new homes. My father describes life at the camp as "easy....there was enough food. Fish and rice were passed out every day. We didn't have to work and had the option to study English."

I'm not sure what I remember about Thailand was what I actually remember or was told to me, but when we arrived. They separated us according to sex. Since I had long curly hair, I was put in the female line. My mom was about nine months pregnant in this picture, and my dad's hair was going totally white.

We had two relatives living around the Detroit area, and although my dad feels that they did nothing to help us during our stay in the camp, the fact that we had relatives in that area and that we were a complete family made the search for sponsorship easier. A worker at United States Catholic Conference (USCC), one of the many voluntary agencies that handled refugee resettlement, said that my uncle had filed an Affidavit of Relationship and declared himself unable to support the family. USCC then called out to various parishes for sponsorship and St. Owens of Birmingham responded.

Our family left Bangkok, the site of our transit center, and arrived in San Francisco on October 14, 1980 and from there, we were flown to our new home in Detroit the next day. Greeted at the airport by Joanne Senaker, a representative of the sponsors, we were taken to our new home in Oak Park. My parents' initial reactions were of extreme joy and happiness: "We were very happy. We had a complete family and we had freedom."