Catherine moved here to the US from Shenzhen, China, and lived with Joe in the St. Louis area until they moved to Hong Kong where Joe served as an international corporate executive overseeing the audit function in Asia and the Pacific for a top 200 corporation.

But Catherine almost didn't make it to America.

Catherine grew up in Hubei Province in a typical working-class home with her parents and an older brother. When Catherine was around 10-years-old she learned how to cook with her mother. The two would cook for the many guests who would regularly congregate at their home. It wasn't until years later that she learned those friends who came to her home belonged to an underground Christian prayer group. They would meet at her home and read the Bible and pray.

Then at one point the authorities caught on to what was taking place at Catherine's home. They arrested her father and an uncle. They brought her father to the police station and beat him hoping to force a confession on their illegal prayer meetings. Her father would not admit to the Bible meetings no matter how much he was pressured and beaten. Catherine's uncle was not so lucky and was sent to prison for three years for praying to Christ.

When Catherine met Joe and after they were married she almost did not make it out of China. During her screening, the authorities told her that her father had engaged in illegal activity several years earlier. The illegal acts on her father's record were the Christian prayer meetings at their home when Catherine was a little girl. Somehow Catherine and her uncle were able to convince them to let her relocate to the US.