“Oh man, my happiest memory to date is when I went back to Bosnia to surprise my family. My sister and I had gone without telling any of our family we were coming. We have lots of family from both our parents’ side still living over there. My dad’s family celebrates St. Nicholas (Nikola) on December 19th. We thought it would be great if we came on that day to surprise them. We tried so hard not to tell anybody or have them figure it out. That morning we left one town to get to the town where they lived. We got there and climbed up the stairs to where my two aunts, and uncle where preparing food for the celebration. My sister knocked on the door and we barged in and surprised them. Everyone was speechless and couldn’t talk for a few seconds before we started hugging and kissing and one of my aunts kept repeating, ‘Are you guys crazy?? Are you crazy??’ (I caught the whole thing on video too.) It was so exhilarating leading up to the surprise and then the moment it happened my heart was pounding so much and my happiness was over the roof. Living far away from them has made me appreciate their role in my life and the little moments we spent together were so much more precious. It also makes me appreciate the sacrifice my parents made by moving to America with their family to give them a better life and more opportunity.” – Jasmina, Spokane
Photo by Clare Pursch