Reunion

Ginter Botanical Gardens  Copyright: 2011 singeronthesand

 

I will praise the name of God with a song,

And magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Psalm 69:30

Hao Truong, his wife, and baby son Kham, were a part of the boat people who fled Vietnam at the end of the Vietnamese War, sailing in dangerously overcrowded boats through treacherous waters.  Truong’s family was sailing to Thailand in December of 1977 when their boat was attacked by pirates, and they were thrown into the South China Sea. Truong managed to survive 16 hours in the water, but he learned weeks later that his wife had drowned.  There was no word regarding their 7-month-old son.

In 1978, Truong resettled in the United States, sponsored by a relative in Louisiana.  All these years he has believed that his son could have survived the shipwreck.  In June of this year, he traveled to Thailand after receiving a tip that his son was there.  A social worker helped him locate his son – a 34-year-old father of two named Samart.  Truong stayed with his son for three weeks, and both were amazed that it felt as though they had known each other their whole lives.

This week, Samart arrived in Rochester, New York where Truong and his family now live.  He will spend four months in the U.S., eventually traveling to Texas to meet his 86-year-old grandfather.  As Truong stood with his son and family at the airport, he proudly proclaimed, “We’re going to have a big Thanksgiving holiday!” 

[Facts from Associated Press on the Internet]