“We are living here for a few months because I am from Thailand and I can’t handle the cold weather in Indiana anymore. We are homeschooling our four kids and I am having another baby in the next month or two. The people here have been very warm and welcoming to us. We met on the Internet and emailed for two years. He flew over to Thailand to meet me and my dad is a pastor, so he married us.”

“I was in college. I didn’t have any money, so I sold my car and bought a ticket to Thailand. I was a free spirit, had no security, and no idea how to raise family. We got married and it was rough with the adjustments of living together and adjustments of cultures. There are still people who discriminate against multi-cultural marriages. Right after I moved her here, I went to serve in Iraq and she had to adjust by herself.”

“I became stronger. Our house was hit by a tornado and it destroyed much of our neighborhood. I didn’t know what a tornado was, but it sounded like a train”

“That was a good welcome to America. I am a combat veteran. I have PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) and I am supposed to relax, but I still have nightmares and I have to fight it every day, even in an environment like this. PTSD progresses. You get out and think you are normal and don’t know you have it and then it catches up with you. A lot of veterans have this desease. People need to realize veterans are a unique group of people. My thing was paranoia. Veterans come back and can’t hold a job, they can’t focus because they are so messed up. War is something you can never forget about. My mind starts racing and I have to workout or go running and try to outrun it. I want to get back to 100 percent for my kids. We are still fighting for my benefits. A lot of veterans end up homeless because it messes up your psyche and they can’t get jobs. The wives go through so much too. We are trying to enjoy life the best we can.”