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About nine years ago, Musa Kweheria Munyua came to the United States with grand plans. He would work, save money, and soon – he hoped – bring his wife and three children here.
“Soon” is a relative term. By late 2005, Kweheria was troubled. He had become a U.S. citizen, but finding a good job was harder than he had expected. He found work in a factory, but the factory closed a few months later. Most of the other jobs he found were part time or temporary positions.
That’s when Northside Missionary Church, where Kweheria attended, learned the truth of his life. They had only known him as Charles – a name he chose because Americans could pronounce it – a guy who came to church on Sundays and then left. His story stunned the congregation, which conducted a fundraiser and pledged to get him the financial and legal help to bring his family to America.
In time, the congregation, as well as Kweheria, learned how complicated it is for a foreigner, even if he has become a citizen, to bring his family to the United States.
More than once Kweheria has had to completely start over with the immigration process for his family. First, everything stalled when, because he was married in a tribal ceremony, he couldn’t prove he was married. He had to return to Kenya to marry his wife in a legal ceremony.
Over the next two years, the immigration process crawled along. Finally, it appeared his family was about to be admitted when everything stalled again. His wife didn’t know when Kweheria got his green card. She didn’t even know what a green card was.
Back to square one once again.
Kweheria might have been discouraged, but his family, still in Kenya, feared it was all a lost cause. His children, who were as young as 4 when he left, were practically grown now. They barely knew him because he had been gone so long. He went to visit them last Christmas, and they asked him why not just stay in Kenya. The embassy will never let us go to America.
Perseverance paid off, though. Kweheria recently learned his family was finally given permission to come to America, and they will arrive next week.
“I am beyond happy,” Kweheria said.
The excitement, though, is not there the way it would have been had he been able to bring his family here five years ago, Kweheria said. In a way, he and his family are feeling relief.
“It’s been really traumatic,” Kweheria said. “They’ve all grown up.”
But when they arrive Wednesday night, they’ll have a home to go to.
There won’t be much else, though. They’ll be starting from scratch.
“I don’t own anything,” Kweheria said. “I’m looking for a car,” preferably a cheap van. “I don’t know how we’ll get around.”
Kweheria is looking for work, too.
But they’ll be a family, together for the first time in nearly a decade.
“I’m telling you – thousands of dollars and how many years?” said Pat Ryan, pastor at Northside Missionary Church. “It’s been very frustrating.”
Now, Ryan said, it’s just a question of getting them the airplane tickets.
