Until I came to the States, there was no hope for my future. I have two children, and I need to protect them and the country that has been good to me. Here I am, 10 years later.

Children are our futures and hopes.

The visions we offer our children shape the future. It _matters_ what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps.

I told my kids that I don't have the education that they have right now. I didn't have the freedom that they have right now. The living conditions ? you sleep on the ground and you live day by day. Your life is in the hands of the communist regime as a slave, basically.

I didn't know what English was all about. It was just our destiny to be chosen to come to the States. We applied to the U.N. They asked us where we wanted to go. I saw the American flag that came to get us from the border. I said that's where we want to go.

Our study should provide hope to parents for an equivalent, if not better, future for their premature children.