Breeda, NY

This is my newborn baci and parents send off in 1980 at Nongkhai Refugee camp, in Thailand where I was born. I was less than 6 weeks old. Taken at such a transitional stage in life, this is one of my favorite photos of my mom. She was pregnant with me when parents crossed the Mekong river, I can’t forget to mention that she didn’t know how to swim either. It’s still hard for me the fathom how difficult it must have been to process leaving everyone you know to go half way across the world to a place where you can’t read, write, or speak the language with literally nothing but their bell bottom jeans. They left everything for the unknown to give both my brothers and I the opportunity of living a better life. This is the bravest journey I have ever known and I’ll forever hold their experience near to my heart.