25 years and counting!

25 years ago today, my parents, along with 6 young kids, made the journey from England in search for a better life in the United States.  my parents were only a few years older than I am right now, and I couldn't imagine leaving my family and moving to another country.  It was such a brave thing to do.  I will tell you a little bit of the story of us moving here and the hardships and blessings that came to follow. 
       
      When my parents first decided to move here, they contacted an immigration lawyer in Chicago that said he could get everything taken care of and told us to come on over and as soon as we arrive he will get all of the paperwork done and we can start our new life.  Sounds easy right?  Well as most people know, immigration is never that easy, but that is not something my parents realized yet.  We sold most of what we had, and put anything important that we wanted to keep in a crate and shipped it to the U.S.  We got on a plane and came over.  When we got here, my parents ended up finding out that the lawyer that they had been talking to was a crook.  Everything that he promised us was not true, and the way that he was going about things was illegal.  They fired that lawyer and hired an awesome lawyer in Salt Lake City.  The only problem is this new lawyer told us the truth of how immigration really works.  He told us that we just needed to lay low for 7 years to get established in the community and then we would be able to apply for residency.  Of course, we were already here, and couldn't afford to make the journey back and so we stayed and decided to stick it out.  It was not easy.  My Dad couldn't find a good job because of his immigration status and my Mom couldn't work at all.  I am not sure what the exact numbers were because I was only a kid, but I think that my dad only made about $14,000 his first year here and he had 6 kids to feed.  Luckily because my parents are such great people, we had a great supporting group of people that helped us out through the years. 

     There were a lot of things that effected me through all of this.  We ended up getting our legal status when I was 17 years old.  Although I had completed drivers education, I wasn't able to get my license when I was 16 because I didn't have a social security number.  I used to get called down to the office at school because the school wanted my social security number for the school records, and I had to work crappy jobs with Mexican immigrants as a teenager just to name a few.  When I was 19, I went back to England to visit.  I always felt like an outcast because of being a foreigner, and so I was excited to go back.  When I got there, they commented about how American I was!  So much for that!  When I got back, I wrote a song about how i felt.  My parents have always told me that the song makes them feel bad for the emotion caused by the move here, but the truth of the matter is that no matter what I went through to get here, I now have the better life that they wanted to give us all.  I have 4 healthy children, I have a beautiful amazing wife, a great job, a nice house, awesome supportive friends, and a hundred other things that I might not have been able to have if we would have stayed in England.  I couldn't wish for more, so Thank You Mom and Dad for being so brave and giving me a chance at the life that I have!

 I LOVE MY LIFE, but I can't help but wonder sometimes... What would have become of my life if we would have stayed?