Imagine how difficult it would be to leave your children with other family members, and immigrate to another country, in search of a better life for your family. For one woman, it took twelve years before her family could be reunited, just in time for the holiday season.
Stories about families that have been reunited are always touching. I think it is because everyone can relate to what it would be like to be far away from your family for a very long time, and how hard that would be. It seems like we hear more of these kinds of stories in the news during the holiday season, than at any other time. Perhaps it is because stories about people who were able to connect with their living relatives, after years apart, are exactly the kinds of stories that make people feel good. Everyone could do with some happy news from time to time, especially around the holidays.
Marivic Cradit immigrated to America from Hong Kong twelve years ago. Although she wanted to bring her three children with her, she simply couldn’t afford to do so. She wanted to give her children a better life, and to do so, she wanted to bring them to America, which she felt was a much safer place to live than where they were. Her family remained behind in the Philippines, and the plan was to save up enough money to bring them to America. She was going to need enough money to afford the plane tickets, as well as the immigration papers, for each of her children.
In order to make that happen, she worked multiple jobs for years. She often worked nearly fourteen hours a day, and came home too exhausted to cook food for herself. She lived in Idaho, because she learned that it was a much easier place for a legal immigrant to come to than other states, like California.
After twelve years of extremely hard work, long hours, and loneliness, Marivic Cradit was finally able to be reunited with her children. Her three children came to America right before Thanksgiving of this year. In the twelve years since they were separated from their mother, her children grew up, and had families of their own. This meant that the reunion included Marivic Cradit’s grandchildren, who she had never met before. Her grandchildren were able to see snow for the very first time.
Image by Beth Knittle on Flickr