Moldovan refugee family celebrates first Christmas in Evansville

Last year on Christmas Day, Victor Malac slipped out of his family’s little house in the eastern European country of Moldova to retrieve the red suit from his car.

His children were expecting Santa.

Their little faces lit up when he walked into the living room carrying small bags of candy.

“The oldest one thought he recognized his father,” Victor’s wife, Inga Malac, said. “But we told him, ‘No, it’s Santa Claus.’ And he believed us.”

Inga and Victor laughed as they told the story. It is a cherished memory now. That was their last Christmas in Moldova.

Late this year, Victor and Inga Malac and their four small children came to America as refugees. It took them years of applications, interviews – and waiting – to get here. When they finally received permission to enter the United States, they packed clothes into a small suitcase and boarded a plane bound for their new home: Evansville.

“We left everything,” Inga, 26, said last week. She spoke in Russian, through an interpreter. “We took our paperwork and some clothes. What else is there I could take? The weight limit for our suitcase was 23 pounds.”

The family didn’t know what to expect when they arrived in Evansville in late October with little money, no home and no job prospects.

On that day, they could not have imagined the outpouring of support that was about to come to them. That in just two short months, people from across the community would help their family establish a new, independent and stable life.

And that their first Christmas in Evansville would bring unimaginable joy.

A Moldovan Christmas

Christmas was always a special time for the Malacs.

Moldova is a Christian nation, and the Malacs are a devout Christian family. Every year, they celebrate the birth of Christ.

But it’s not at all like an American Christmas.

Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe. The economy collapsed there after it split from the Soviet Union in 1991, and it never recovered. No one has the money to exchange presents. Parents save up to buy oranges and sweets for their children. Families go to church, then a meal.

And in the evening, they all gather and go door to door around their villages telling everyone – Jesus is born!

It’s like the caroling tradition in the U.S., “but we don’t sing,” Inga said.

As part of the tradition, families gave fruits and sweets to everyone who came to their door.

“If someone knocks on your door, you have to give them something,” Inga said. “Fruit and candies are so expensive; we always gave out the apples we grew in our backyard.”

Many families did the same.

The door-to-door tradition made Christmas a day of great sharing, and a bright spot in an otherwise hard, cold season.

Moldovan winters are bitterly cold, and full of snow.

With their small paychecks, Moldovan families buckle down and survive the season. They buy basic supplies from the grocery, but mostly eat whatever food they preserved and stored from their summer gardens.

Victor had a job at a car lot and Inga stayed home to care for their growing family. She tended the garden every summer, and preserved the fruits and vegetables for the winter.

The couple met on a Russian social networking site, similar to Facebook, when Inga was 20 and Victor was 22.

They were married and expecting their first child a year later.

Leaving Moldova

As their children grew, Inga and Victor worried for their futures in Moldova. The economy, which collapsed in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union dissolved, showed no signs of rebounding. Victor had a good job, by Moldovan standards, but he was unlikely to get a better one. The family had food and shelter, and little else.

“It’s hard” in Moldova, Victor, 28, said last week, through an interpreter. “Life is really harder there. I got a very small paycheck and everything was so expensive. The whole area is in a depression. I don’t want to say bad things about my country, that’s what it is.”

The couple had several long conversations about their future.

In the end, leaving Moldova was an easy decision.

Inga’s older sister, Cristina Manolova, and husband were already in the United States when Victor and Inga decided to come.

The Manolovas had lived in Chicago when they first arrived. But they struggled there. Work was hard to find and the cost of living was high.

So when they heard about a Russian-speaking community in Evansville, they were eager to move. The community was small, but close. It had its own church and several Russian-speaking construction companies that were always hiring.

Evansville’s Russian-speaking community formed in the early 1990s when a few families that fled the former Soviet Union established themselves in Evansville. Since then, many such families have trickled into the city.

Cristina Manolova and her husband came to Evansville and made a home here a few years ago. They got jobs, took English classes, found friends, and bought a house.

Then they invited Cristina’s sister and her family to join them.

Welcome to Evansville

Inga and Victor didn’t know it, but once their immigration was approved, a lot of people began preparing for their arrival in Evansville.

The family would stay with Inga’s sister. Cristina prepared a room for them, and then she and her friend, Irina Medvedev, looked for supplies.

They bought clothes and bedding for the kids, furniture and kitchen supplies the family would need for their first home.

“I was always calling (Cristina) when I found something on sale,” Irina said.

The pastors at the Grace of Christ Slavic Baptist Church (Evansville’s Russian speaking church) made announcements to the congregation that a new family was coming. People with extra furniture, money or supplies came forward.

“We do whatever we can to help,” said Oleg Kuksenko, a pastor at Grace of Christ. “That is one of the reasons we have this community. One is to preach the gospel, and one is to help each other. This is how we show God’s love to each other.”

Immediately after the Malacs arrived, a church member who owns a construction company offered Victor a job. It was steady work, and a decent paycheck.

The Malacs had help beyond Evansville’s little Russian-speaking community. Aurora, Inc., a local nonprofit that traditionally helps the homeless, launched their refugee assistance program shortly before the family arrived.

The Malacs were one of the first families Aurora agreed to help. In the last two months, a case manager from Aurora connected the family with a translator, helped them file all the official immigration paperwork and complete the necessary doctor visits. And once they had an income, the case manager helped them apply for an apartment.

On Thursday, the family moved into their new place. It’s the largest home they’ve ever had.

Christmas in Evansville

Christmas morning in the Malacs’ new home will be a small affair compared with other Evansville families.

But to them, it will be a grand celebration.

Like the years before, Victor plans to sneak outside and put on his red suit. Only this year, he will surprise his children with a bag of toys. Aurora provided many of the gifts this year – but there are a few that he and Inga bought themselves.

Their children had a few special requests.

“What do you want Santa to bring you?” Inga asked her oldest son, Max, 5, as they sat in church last week.

Max’s eyes lit up.

“A tablet!” he exclaimed.

Inga smiled, and squeezed her son’s shoulder.

“We’ll have to see if Santa brings it,” she said.

The look in her eyes said he would.