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| Welcoming Polish Refugees to Advent, 1984 |
Refugees. Immigrants. Asylum-seekers. Lately these words have become hot-button and divisive issues politically in our country. But in the 70's and 80's Advent embraced several refugee families, and politics never entered our thoughts. We were just helping folks escape tyranny and come to America, just as our ancestors had. I recently re-connected with one of the families and their story definitely defines The American Dream.
I remember the first time I met Jan and Bozena Adamczuk my first thought was, "She's so young! What courage it must take to leave everything and step into a country you barely know!" When we talked about it over dinner a few days ago, she admitted to being both scared and excited. "I missed my family terribly. Especially my sisters. But Jan said, 'I'm your family now. We are a family. We will be just fine.' His strength and positive attitude carried us and we worked hard to join the American culture. When you are as young as we were, you don't have a good sense of what you are leaving, but just think of the future."
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| The Adamczuk's and me on their first Sunday in America |
The church was able to secure a small apartment for them on 36th Street before it was the trendy NoDa neighborhood. Paul Johnson, an Advent member help set up both of the Polish couples we brought over with Thurston Motor Lines. They began as mechanics and proved to be hard workers. Jan was eager to learn all aspects of trucking from driving, mechanics and maintenance, and managing the business. Bozena became pregnant with their first son and remembers fondly their sponsor, Jimmie Smith. His mother Jean came and spent a week with her after Tristan was born, teaching her how to take care of the baby. "Being away from my own mom, I needed a mother figure," she said.
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| Bozena and Jan Adamczuk with baby Tristan during a visit by Bozena's Mom |
Jan was always the positive one and kept repeating his mantra that "America is the land of opportunity and we will make our lives here." They found several other young Polish families at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church and began creating their own extended circle of family and friends there. Tristan, their son was born their first year here and Deanna, their daughter came along five years later.
During their first decade in America, they would frugally save so that they could afford visits back to Poland to visit family. They would alternate going with the children. Bozena remembers during her first visits, she would cry uncontrollably on the plane ride back as she left her family again back in Poland. Then on her 3rd or 4th trip back from Poland, she remembers having the feeling of going back "home" to America. North Carolina was her home now. With Jan, Tristan and Deanna, this was home.
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| The Adamczuk Family today |
They continued to save and over the years they began to sponsor Bozena's sisters and their husbands and bring them to America. Finally after her youngest sister finished high school, they sponsored her and her mother, and brought them all to America. Today they all live either in Charlotte or Atlanta.
As Jan learned the trucking business, he decided to go out on his own and start his own company. At one time he managed 27 trucks, doing all of the maintenance himself, with Bozena managing the payroll and finances from home with her young growing family. It was hard, but satifying work. Today, Tristan manages the operations, and Deanna just recently joined the company to manage the financial end. Both of their children graduated from UNCC. Tristan is married and has two children and Deanna is engaged and lives around the corner from me!
As we caught up over dinner recently, it was obvious that their hard work has paid off. Jan and Bozena now live near South Park and have been able to travel extensively in Europe, especially Italy and Poland. We shared stories of travel and launching our children through college to careers and houses of their own.
Before we became members, Advent also sponsored two Hmong families. Pastor Hess remembers when their first son was born, they said they wanted to name him "A". Bernie told him that American names were usually longer, so they settled on Andy. We had a similar experience with a Vietnamese family in Greensboro. They named their son Cain. When our pastor said that was the son of Adam who killed his brother, he said, "Yes, I know. He was the one who survived." We all got chills, and a completely new perspective of that Bible story!
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| I assume that the baby is Andy |
After a few months the two Advent families decided to move to Wisconsin where other Hmong families had settled. They put the wives and baby on a Greyhound bus and rented a U-Haul to drive to Wisconsin. Bernie was worried that they would have trouble finding their way that far. Sa Vang said, "Bernie Hess I swam across the Mekong River at night to get to safety, I think I can find my way to Wisconsin."
As I relived our refugee resettlement efforts, I realized that our efforts were just one example of how we live out our motto to "Love God, Serve Neighbors", for in Christ we are all neighbors no matter where we started.
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