GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - A family torn apart by wore nearly 20 years ago has been reunited right here in West Michigan.
At Gerald R. Ford International airport Tuesday, Sarah and Michael Chuol embraced their mother, 74 year old Elizabeth Nyamuon for the first time since 1990. The last time they saw her was in their southern Sudanese village.
"When the war came, we separated and I was married, so I went with my husband. I left my village," said Sarah Chuol.
Her brother Michael described the time when the family was separated. Elizabeth made it to a refugee camp in Ethiopia; her children found shelter at a camp in Uganda.
"We never talked to her. She never heard from us, and we never heard from her."
The Chuols remained in Uganda until 2005.
"When they got refugee status and arrived here in Grand Rapids through the Sudanese Network, they found each other," explained Linda Gray, a member of Genesis United Methodist Church.
Church members helped the Chuols get refugee status for Elizabeth in collaboration with Bethany Christian Services and Congressman Vern Ehlers. It's taken four years. As her children waited at the airport, so did congregation members, all of whom were just as excited to watch Elizabeth finally come down the terminal.
The Chuols were overjoyed in the moment. A frail Elizabeth, who spent her life displaced by war, is once again in the arms of her children.
"When she saw me, she told me don't cry. Be happy, be happy. Yes. She says she is happy, don't cry. She said she is praying all day," said daughter Sarah Chuol.
Chuol is grateful beyond words for the reunion, but the frail woman she sees now is not the woman she remembers.
"This is not, she not like that when she take care for us," she said.
Chuol must reconcile with an injustice that stole her family's freedom and most precious of all their time together.
But God is good, Chuol says. She says it's faith, that has brought the family to where they are now, surrounded by love and support as they embark on a new beginning.
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