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West Valley City • Sarah Osborn, the foster mother of three teenage refugees from Myanmar, feels as if she has been invited into an artist's workshop and asked to help put the finishing touches on three masterpieces.
"It feels like God ... is saying, 'I'm going to do something really amazing and you get to be part of it,' " Sarah says. "They are so capable. They have so much potential."
In the two years since the three — Kap Tung Mung, 17; Khup Ngo Thang, 18; and Than Htay, 18 — came to live with the Osborns, the boys have learned English, thrived in school and are on their way to becoming involved, contributing members of the community, Sarah and Ray Osborn say.
Ray gets choked up just thinking about the obstacles his foster sons have overcome and the strides they have made.
"I couldn't be more proud," says Ray, who works as a manager for 3M Health Information Systems.
But it is the entire Osborn family, including Allie, 9, who will be applauded at a banquet Wednesday.
The Osborns will receive the Unsung Hero Award from Catholic Community Services, which runs one of Utah's two refugee-resettlement programs.
CCS has brought 53 refugee children to Utah since late 2008, and hopes to bring in 22 more next year.
A family taking multiple children is especially celebrated because it's difficult enough to find foster parents for even one refugee child, says Aden Batar, director of CCS' refugee program. "Very few families will open their homes to refugee children who are coming from overseas and who they don't know anything about."
'Can you do three?' • Sarah and Ray came to be foster parents in a roundabout way.
Several years into their 17-year marriage, they found they were unable to have biological children. Two adoptions fell through before they adopted Allie out of Utah's foster-care system four years ago.
After allowing Allie to settle in for a couple of years, they were looking to become foster parents to an older girl. But they never found one who would mesh with Allie.
Eventually, their contact at Utah Youth Village broached the subject of the Osborns taking in a foster refugee child as part of what then was a new program at CCS.
"She said, 'Well, if you can do one, can you do two?,' " Sarah recalls. "Then it was, 'If you can do two, can you do three?' "
It was only a matter of hours before both Sarah and Ray said yes.
Kap was the first to arrive, on Nov. 7, 2008. Khup came five days later, and Than was in West Valley City before the month ended.
All three are from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
Kap and Khup are Chin, from the mountainous region. They speak the same dialect. Than is from the coastal region and speaks Burmese. All three had fled their home villages for economic or safety reasons and had been living on their own in Malaysia since they were 13 or 14.
None of them spoke English.
"The first weekend Kap Tung was with us," Ray says, "he helped me build bunk beds."
Within days, the two older boys began classes at Cyprus High, and Kap was in ninth grade at Matheson Junior High.
Buu Diep, the caseworker who oversees the CCS refugee-foster program, says Sarah's advocacy for the boys amazed her.
If a school official said something couldn't be done, Sarah would say, " 'Yes you can. Let's do it together,' " Diep says. "She called the counselor constantly."
Initially, the family thought it would be a victory if the boys simply attended classes and perhaps got their GEDs (general educational diplomas).
But with a lot of hard work and tutoring from Sarah, Ray and grandparents Dianne and Paul Lerdahl, who come to their daughter's home one or two nights a week, Khup and Than both tested out of classes they missed. They graduated with their Cyprus classmates last spring. Their diplomas, along with photos of the Cyprus soccer team they were part of, adorn the Osborns' living room wall.
Sarah helped the boys fill out college financial-aid applications and win scholarships at Salt Lake Community College, Diep says. Than is thinking he might be a social worker or accountant; he is a treasurer of a refugee group that just raised $600 to help victims of a cyclone in Myanmar. Khup wants to be a doctor.
Meanwhile, Kap is a junior at Cyprus and especially loves science and music.
Cross-stitched Buddha • Of the three, Kap is most involved in his faith community, the New Life Center United Pentecostal Church in Salt Lake City.
Khup, who was reared Baptist, attends church at New Life with Kap each Sunday morning. On Sunday afternoons, the two go to Zomi Christian Fellowship meetings in South Salt Lake, where they sing and worship in their own dialect with other refugees. The group has a nascent band going and Kap is designing the logo.
Than is Buddhist, but doesn't attend a temple regularly. The Osborns took him to various temples in the valley, but he found no one speaking Burmese. In his room, he has a picture of the Buddha, cross-stitched by Sarah.
Sundays were a challenge before Khup began driving, Ray says. Sarah or Ray were spending much of the day ensuring Kap and Khup got to their services and would sometimes miss their own at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"We were trying," Ray says, "to get to our own church enough times that they don't think we've gone completely inactive."
Sarah says it's important the boys be able to worship in familiar ways, with songs they know and traditions they embrace.
"I put myself in their shoes and thought about how I'd feel if I were clear across the planet," she says. "It also puts them in a group where they were able to feel grounded in the community, too. It gives them a place to start putting roots down in America."
Values & valued • Sarah Osborn says she can tell one thing just by living with the three: "They come from communities and families that love each other."
They have values that good parents instill. They are self-reliant, hardworking, unselfish and kind.
"I don't have to ask them to do things," Sarah says. "If they see something that needs to be done, they just do it."
The boys take turns cooking, and the Osborns have been introduced to many new foods. "Holy cow," Sarah says, "we go through fish sauce."
The way she sees it, she and Ray are "bonus" parents who always will be the American family to the three boys. Each says he wants to remain in this country, though they have occasional phone contact with their parents in the war-torn country.
Sarah pictures one day meeting their parents.
"Whether in this or the next life, I'll have to answer to their parents," Sarah says. "I want to be able to tell them, 'I did the best I could for your son. He's a wonderful man.' And they'll be able to be proud of their boys."
Catholic Community Services awards dinner to honor Utahns
P The Sarah and Ray Osborn family of West Valley City will be among those honored Wednesday at the Catholic Community Service's annual awards dinner.
The Osborns, foster parents to three unrelated refugee boys from Myanmar, will receive the Unsung Hero Award.
CCS, which is celebrating its 65th year of service in Utah, also will honor Bishop John C. Wester, leader of the Salt Lake City Catholic Diocese and chairman of the Migration Committee for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; community advocate Pamela J. Atkinson; retired CCS director Maggie St. Claire; and Julie Beck, president of the women's Relief Society for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The fundraising dinner is at Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City and individual seats are $150.