Refugee Journeys: Immaculee and Jobert [Video]

Here's the first in a series of stories of refugees in their own words, recorded by the International Rescue Committe and StoryCorps.

When Immaculee Harushimana left her homeland, her husband, and her two young sons to finish her studies in the U.S. she never imagined that she wouldn't be able to return to live out her dream of a better life for her family in Burundi.

When a violent war broke out in 1993, shortly after she left, those dreams shattered and a new dream emerged: to be reunited with her family in safety.

As her husband and their sons spent years hiding and moving from place to place in search of safety, across the world in New York City Immaculee did everything in her power to bring them to the United States.

Twelve years later and with the help of the International Rescue Committee, her new dream came true -- but only partly. The day she called her husband to give him the good news, he was in a coma, and died shortly after. Immaculee and her older son Jobert, a high-school senior, talk about those long years apart and what it's like to be together at last.