It was hard for us to cope with all the chnages at first. I remember when my son Shmaeil, would come back from school and he would cry because he did not know a single word in English. I cried with him, I knew he wanted to learn. He cared a lot about being a good student and when he couldn’t understand the language he would become nervous and start crying. That was probably the hardest thing I’ve been through here. I did not understand some of his homework as well, at times, I felt useless. 

My son, Shmaeil is currently attending Northern Arizona University on a full-scholarship to become a physician assistant. And my daughter, Catrin is a freshman in high school and has a bright future ahead of her. We were blessed as a family to have another son, Emmanuel in 2010. My husband works at Fry’s food stores, he recently was promoted to be a supervisor in the produce department.

Today is April 26^th, 2018, and after nine years of living in the United States, my life is just beginning to settle down. Three years ago, we became United States citizens as did our children. This is the life that I could not have had in Iraq anymore. My children would have never been able to finish their education and we would have never been able to buy a house. I think the people in Iraq deserve this life and they shouldn’t have to migrate thousands of miles in order to have a chance at life. 

In Iraq, life was easier. My husband, Imaad worked as a supervisor at Hyatt hotels and he made enough money for our family. I did not have to work. I stayed home caring for my son, who was born in 1999. In 2002, I was pregnant with my second child, my daughter, Catrin.

            Everything changed after the war in 2003. When the U.S. army invaded Iraq, they came through the South. As soon as the U.S. military entered Basra, my husband, myself, my son and my infant daughter drove North. We packed only clothes, and fled to my parent’s house in Sharafia, a small village just thirty-minutes drive north of Mosul. It was a long eight-hour drive, my daughter was only 40-days old. I was so scared for my kids, they were just kids and had no idea what was going on around them. 

My biggest regret growing up was not finishing my college. After two years of college, I got married and never finished my degree. After moving back to my home in Baghdad, my husband had been laid off work, had to find a job being a taxi driver. After Saddam was found and arrested, chaos ensued. Terrorist groups started pouring in, there was no law nor order, Iraqi nationalist waged war on whoever supports the U.S. military; they would hunt down families of individuals who had any association or contact with the Americans. Baghdad was not the same city I had left.

I was not afraid to do what I wanted. I went back to college, graduated and found a job at an elementary school. No matter how dangerous your life can be, you can’t give up on what you want. You can’t stop living. When I started the job, I carpooled with other teachers in a minivan. I taught from 7:00 AM to 1:30 PM. Of course, you are always afraid of a bomb exploding, road rage shootings, or being taken hostage by terrorist groups. I lived in a Shia Muslim majority area, in our school district, teachers were not allowed to show hair; I wore a head scarf to teach at an elementary. I did what I could to stay teaching, I loved my job.

In 2008, our landlord wanted to sell his property because the area became dangerous and he wanted to move. He gave us a three-month notice to evict the house and find a new place. My husband did not want to leave Baghdad, he was born and raised there. He said, “if we are leaving, we are leaving the country”. His sister lived in Arizona since late 1990’s, she told us she’ll help us throughout our migration, if we decide to leave.

So, in July of 2008, we left Iraq. We sold every asset we had and took all our savings with us. Our destination was Turkey. Many people fled to Turkey that year, it was the safest place for Iraqi refugees at the time.

We stayed between Istanbul and Afyon, Turkey for ten months as refugees. We applied for asylum through the United Nations. When you are a refugee in Turkey, you are not allowed to work, make any kind of legal money and participate in any job event or social events. My son, Shmaeil couldn’t go to school either because refugee’s children aren’t allowed in schools. We faced hardship in Turkey, but luckily our application was being processed faster than other application because we had my sister-in-law in Arizona, who was vouching for us. We went through three interviews and finger printings; then finally, we received our flight date.

On May 25^th, 2009, our flight took off. Our destination was New York.