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From Communism to Mormonism to motherhood, it's been a heck of a ride for Magda Wojinska Stone By
Anna Brunson It's a long way from Lodz, Poland to Logan, Utah. But when Magda Eva Wojinska made the trip, she came even farther than the physical distance. As she sits in her two-bedroom apartment living room that is furnished with the expensive wedding presents and obvious hand-me-down furniture of a college couple, she holds her daughter, five-day-old Adelle Renae. "None of this was in my goals. I never dreamed I would end up here," Magda Stone says. "She's amazing," says her husband, Aaron, "She really is. Magda's a trooper, and she does everything." Stone is a mechanical engineer, a Mormon, and a mother. With an obvious accent, but confident English, Stone says she started as far away from that as one could get-Poland, before communism fell. "People think it was bad, but it really wasn't so bad. We had much appreciation for what we did have," she says. "It was so great to find a gift of a banana or orange under the Christmas tree. Or a Coke. Especially Coke. We'd be so excited." "But now everything is just the same as the U.S.," she says. "My nieces and nephews are so spoiled now." "Because my parents were educated, our family was a little better off, even though everybody was pretty much the same back then," she says. "Classes are just starting [to develop] there now." Stone was only ten years old when communism fell in Poland. "It really didn't change that much for me; I didn't notice a lot of changes," says Stone, "Actually, my parents hated it. Lots of people did. Everyone lost their jobs, even if they didn't do much, and some people were old enough that they didn't want to find new ones. "But my brother, and the younger generation thought it was great. More companies came in, and now my brother works on the computers at a bank," she says. While growing up in Lodz, Stone never dreamed that she would leave Poland. She enjoyed school and expected to go to college. She planned on a career after that. But then, Stone was invited to live with her aunt in Massachusetts for a year when she was 17. "I knew very little English when I went, but I learned a lot while I was there." She was shocked at the openness of people in the United States. "In Sherborn, when I would go out for a walk, people in cars would stop and ask who I was and what I was doing," she says. "They weren't mean. They were just very curious. "The food was also strange. It is the same food, but it tastes different," Stone said. Even now, the one thing she misses most about Poland is bread. "Oh, I miss it so much," she says. "There would be bakeries on the street, and you could smell it as you walked by because they baked it three times a day, you could always buy a piece of hot bread. It was so good." That was Stone's first trip to the United States, but it wasn't her last. After she returned to Poland, another event changed her life plans even more. During communism, Stone, who was Catholic, says that churches actually became stronger in Poland. "Because of the hard times, people really bonded together," she says. Stone's family, however, was not bonded to religion. "My dad said that I could grow up to be anything I wanted-except a nun," Stone recalls. Stone says she thought very little about religion until she began attending a different high school when she was 19. Some missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were teaching English there, and at the end of the course, they handed out Books of Mormon and asked us to visit them. "Everyone said yes," she says. "I did too, but I did not believe. I was against church. But when they came over, it was nice." Stone was baptized into the LDS church that year. Because she had learned English, she assisted an older LDS couple living there with shopping and other tasks. She spent every day with them for almost six months and became very close to them. They helped her come back to the United States for the second time‹for good. In 1994, Stone applied for a "lottery" green card. To do this, she had to secure a place to live, a sponsor and a job. The couple she befriended in Poland had moved back to St. George, Utah, and volunteered to sponsor her. She got the green card in January, and she left in March. Stone started her new American life and her college mathematics degree at Dixie College. "And I loved it," she says. "Dixie is a smaller school, and the teachers cared about me so much more." She worked her way through school by grading papers and tutoring in math classes. It was at Dixie where one of her professors convinced her to take yet another diversion in her life. "I was taking a linear algebra course," says Stone. "It was easy, but it was so boring. I just couldn't picture myself doing proofs all day. My professor suggested that I apply my math skills and go into engineering. I thought it would be fun." After finishing her associate's degree, Stone served an 18-month mission in England for her church, but when she returned, she got a scholarship to Utah State University to study mechanical engineering. "It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be," Stone says. Even so, she made plans to go on to graduate school in bio-medical engineering. Until she changed her plans again. "I hated Logan," Stone recalls, "School just wasn't fun anymore. The students were competitive with each other, and my teachers weren't nice. But, because of Aaron, I suppose it was a good thing." "I moved into a house with my friend in River Heights," Stone explained. "We lived on the top floor, and five boys lived in the basement. Aaron was one of them. We'd have Sunday dinners together, and we'd talk to each other a lot." Stone met Aaron in September. They were engaged by Christmas, and married on Mar. 10, 2001. "It was very fast," Stone says. She graduated in June, but her husband is still attending USU for a degree in Public Relations. Life for Stone changed once more last fall when she found out she was pregnant. After a month of false labor, on April 19, they had their first child-Adelle, a seven-pound baby girl with chubby cheeks and black matted hair. Now, Stone's life is about as far away from communist Poland as it could possibly get. It is no less busy-Stone works and takes care of a family now. But she says she is more satisfied. Life and everything that comes with it has never stopped for her, and she has never stopped for life. Even while telling her story on a Thursday afternoon, Stone paused intermittently to warm a bottle, answer the phone, burp the baby and put her to bed. But when she came back, as in all cases, she never missed a step. "Not even a month of false labor can keep her down," says Aaron Stone. Aaron sat next to her on their faded futon couch as Adelle, pink and chubby, drifted off to sleep in her mother's arms. Light spilled into the window that faces a quiet street in North Logan. The husband and wife pause, look at each other and smile. "As I look back, I see that everything had its own place," Stone says as she looks at her daughter. "If I had not changed schools, I would not have met the missionaries; If I had not learned English, I wouldn't have come to study at Dixie; If I had not come here, even though I hated here, I would not have met Aaron. Things are not all as I planned, but it is all okay." With the distance Stone has come already, both physically and emotionally, she says it's hard to judge where she will end up in the future. But Poland is not in her plans. "I feel like a bad daughter or something because I don't get homesick," Stone says, "But, I've been home two times for a month, and that's enough." Stone has not yet become a citizen because she thought the United States didn't allow for dual citizenship. "I feel proud to be Polish," Stone says. She says that she doesn't want to throw it away. One change Stone plans for is a change in career. "I don't think I would be a good engineer," says Stone. "Maybe instead I could go back to school to teach secondary education-math, physics, science." "That would be fun, I think," she says. Family, though, is at the top of her list for the future. "Having a family was never in my dreams," Stone says, "It was not one of my goals, but now that I have it-it's great. It is the best. I would like to spend time with Adelle and other children we will have. "When we got married, I told Aaron I would not be a wife that would stay at home all the time," Stone says, "I needed to go out and have a career. But now, it changes so often. Sometimes I want to go back to work; other times I bake bread." More changes are on the way this summer. Stone's mother has come from Poland to help with Adelle, and she'll stay through the summer, while Aaron works at an internship in Provo. "It will work because it has to work," Aaron says. "It's what we need to do." Aaron has only one request for Stone's future. "I hope she takes more naps. She's been through a lot, and she needs to take a break from all that life."
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