Hello, my name is Ivanka.
My name is Mirsad.
My name is Sandra.
My name is Sandro.
We met and got married after one week!
We’ve been married for 31 years. Wow!
We’re going to tell you a story.
There was a war happening in Bosnia.
Wow… It was tragic. I didn’t know because I was sleeping in the morning.
I had to work at 5:30 in the morning. I was walking to the bus stop and waited there. There was no one there at all.
Someone shouted at me from the top of a building. I didn’t hear anything since I was deaf.
Then someone came up to me, wearing white sheers over their head, looking like a ghost!
“What?” I said.
“Go. Go! Sniper!” Immediately, I looked everywhere; I was in a state of shock!
I found out there was a war happening when they told me to go down to the basement.
My parents took us and we all went down to the basement together.
My son was two years old and my daughter was four. I grabbed them and went down to the basement.
As soon as I laid them down, I asked them if they were okay. It was crazy! I didn’t hear anything when I went out.
I’m in shock but I’m with them all now.
While we were staying in the basement, I pressed the doorbell. I forgot that there was a flashing light…
and they shot at it!
We stayed in the basement for a while. My daughter was crying out for milk.
There was just no milk available - All the stores were closed because of the war and
I didn’t want to go out and get shot.
We needed food. What we had wasn’t enough for all of us.
What food our parents gave us, my sister and I had to split.
We didn’t have much. I needed milk and I couldn’t sleep without it.
I was out of control.
We’d eat our food in small portions but we were still hungry.
We had family come over and see us starve. They encouraged us to move out of the city,
somewhere with cows and chickens.
The city was where the war was happening. Outside the city, it was safer where my grandparents lived.
We had to escape.
We had the kids get to the car first, then my wife. They left while I stayed behind.
I couldn’t drive and I didn’t know where to go. This deaf person said they could help me.
They also warned me that I would be shot if the military knew I wasn’t hearing.
The army in the city was all hearing. There wasn’t a single deaf soldier.
My passport was stamped to indicate that I was deaf. This deaf person invited us to go with him.
We were escaping then, on our way out of the city… Until this one soldier stopped us. It gave us chills.
Then, suddenly, the soldier had his gun pointed to my face.
I tried calming things down because he obviously jumped to conclusions.
Luckily, my mom showed our passports to the soldier, to show that we were deaf. He let us go then.
But after that, I was so scared.
They were letting cars through except for us. Instead, they blocked us and told us to go another way.
We drove for a very long time until we finally arrived at my mother’s house. I hugged her and cried then.
My mother asked me about my husband and I told her that he stayed behind to watch the house.
“Does he care about the family? Who cares about a house?
Bring the whole family here!” was what my mother said.
My husband stayed behind because he believed it would be over in two months…
One year passed, then two. The war lasted so long, it was stupid!
I stayed and looked after our house for three years. I was so worried!
There was no water, no electricity. I had to walk a long way for water.
There was a line for water. I filled buckets with five gallons of water and brought them back home.
Since there was no electricity either, I couldn’t cook without a fire.
I had to chop down trees for wood and bring it back.
I cooked outside since there was no electricity for anything inside.
The only thing I cooked was rice. Same food, everyday.
If I wanted to use my bike, I had to dodge bullets while riding.
They kept shooting at me and I kept swerving instead of going in a straight line.
I had to pedal as hard as I could just to avoid getting shot. I was so scared!
For months, I thought about my husband. Then it became years. I cried a lot because
I started thinking maybe he was dead because of the war.
It wasn’t the first time that they told us that dad would be back and that he’d arrive by bus.
It seemed like they were bringing ‘refugees’ home, I don’t know?
The bus arrived and people would get off the bus. We waited for dad but he just wasn’t there.
Other buses came and still no sign of dad. It happened so many times.
For two years, I cried and cried because I hadn’t seen or heard from my husband.
The internet was down and electricity poles were useless due to the war. All the lights were broken.
Still, I waited.
The war got worse and reached my mother’s house. I gathered up my family and we escaped.
We were advised against going to one area because of soldiers there; instead, we went to the river.
In order to avoid getting shot, we had to stay low below the chopped trees by the river and we made it through.
While we were moving through the river, my daughter wanted water. I had no choice but to give her dirty water
from the driver and feed her using the bottle.
I normally use dry milk to feed her. You know, the white powder dry milk?
I mixed the dry milk with the dirty water and fed her.
Once we settled down, the war would catch up to us again. We had to escape and move four times!
After two or three months of settling in, we hadn’t seen or heard anything about the war. It was better then
and we tried to loosen up. The kids wanted to go outside and play, but I said no, they had to stay.
My sister told them to stay.
Then all of a sudden, while other kids were outside playing, something big had just hit the area.
There were flesh and blood everywhere, it turned out to be tanks shooting rounds everywhere!
I saw the kids terrified and running like crazy. Suddenly, I felt nauseous, even dizzy. I was just in a state of shock.
I was just in a state of shock.
Unfortunately, eight kids had died playing outside. Mine didn’t play, thank God!
After three years of worrying and staying behind, I changed my mind. I had to escape!
I didn’t want to deal with the war anymore.
I was able to join the U.N. list for getting on a bus for refugees.
The bus was in between two tanks. I travelled to the farm and had to get on a different bus.
When we arrived at the bus stop, my mom had no clue what was happening.
Finally, my dad got off the bus and my mom didn’t recognize him.
My sister said, "Look!"
I looked at him and I didn’t recognize him. He was really thin!
But he knew me and waved at me. I was shaking my head in denial.
My brother didn’t recognize him either. I ran to him, screaming “Daddy!”
I hugged him. My mom looked so confused.
My daughter was hugging him and crying. I was just confused, looking at them.
I couldn’t believe that was my husband.
I thought to myself, “Whoa, he looks so different!”
My dad looked so different! He was just so thin.
With realization, I immediately went to him, hugging and crying with him.
It was because he stayed in the warzone for two years with no access to food. It was just scarce.
When I saw my wife, I was in shock, I just hugged her.
I went home with them and we had a feast.
I had no meat! I had the same thing everyday - Rice and fish.
I was happily cooking for my husband - Meat and vegetables and more. As soon as he started eating…
My head was spinning and I fell down.
It was because I didn’t have any meat for three years!
I passed out when I fell down.
As time went by, he got better and better.
We embraced each other and at that moment, we didn’t care about our house, we just cared about our family.
We have deaf institutes in our city, but with the war going on,
our parents didn’t want us to stop our education.
They encouraged us to continue studying so they sent us to Zagreb in Croatia.
I felt like our parents were left behind, but they weren’t able to come to Croatia due to the war.
The reason we were allowed to was because we were kids and we needed education.
My parents had to stay behind and they were devastated.
Over there in Zagreb, the institute wasn’t really friendly in the dorms. There was abuse. They gave us lousy food.
Some of the food had bugs. Some of it was so old the bread were moldy. We suffered.
We were very low on funds. He would look around for side jobs, asking friends to see if he could do anything.
He was able to chop down trees and get paid for it. But there were only a few of them.
I felt like this was impossible - My husband wasn’t making money, my kids were in another country, and it was too much for me.
and it was too much for me. My hearing friend suggested we go to America instead.
I said, "Really?"
They told us to go to America because there were good programs for us and that
it was important for them to shift focus on us.
They didn’t care about themselves but wanted us to value our education.
Croatia was okay, but the institute heavily discriminated us.
It wasn’t a good education for us because we had to speak rather than sign.
They forced us to speak.
We went to the government building in America.
They asked us where we were from. We explained that we came from the awful war in Bosnia,
that we were from two different war zones, me with my mother and my husband in our hometown.
They approved us and we had to pledge in. We thought it would take about a year but it only took six months.
We were thrilled!
The idea of moving to America filled us with excitement and hope.
Where would we live in America?
I looked at the map and realized I had to pick one state out of fifty.
I just closed my eyes and randomly picked a place on the map. It was Ohio.
We all got on the plane. Finally, this time, we were all together as a family.
When we landed, I asked if we would be separated again, but my parents said no.
They said we would settle here in America with no more separation. I thanked God for that.
When I moved here with my family, I was like, “Ahh, finally!” I’m all about family.
America is perfect and has been great for us. We have independence and freedom!
I’m very happy being here in America!
We were fine. We did great growing up in school and we graduated from college. We both got jobs.
My parents got jobs. I’m so happy that we’re living here. I’m very grateful.