Blind Faith in Humanity

Good Morning! I hope this finds you safe and well. We are Michael and Ami Kowalski, parents of many. We are Biological, step, adoptive and foster parents. Last week, we had our 9th child in Ukraine and what an adventure that was. We left the hospital just a few hours after she was born with our Charlotte Marina and another American baby who’s parents were not able to make it in to Ukraine for a 3 day journey to safety. While waking up to bombings, traveling through active war zones, sleeping in train stations with 2 newborns is interesting. I’d like to focus on the divine interventions and blind faith in humanity that got us to safety. We would not be here if it weren’t for all of THEM.

For privacy purposes (and fear of retaliation) many would prefer that we don’t use their names and/or images. We completely understand and would never compromise their safety. I will just share some of the selfless acts we experienced from the Ukrainian community. The cab driver, who bottomed out his car multiple times going over curbs etc and didn’t worry that card machines were down and we had limited cash for the 4 hour drive out of the initial attack. If he was worried about not being able to get gas to return to his family, he didn’t show it. Our nyanya who continued to stick with us knowing we had no access to money (atms empty and card machines down) for fear that we would be left abandoned somewhere. Risked her own life multiple times to make sure we were safe. Once we were, moved on to help another family. Our baby’s namesake. Our amazing agency Adonis who had such supportive people who thought quickly at every turn and served their families well during an ever changing crisis. To our interpreter that we brought with us as a refugee and went without herself for the babies to be as comfortable as possible traveling through danger for over 2 days. Natashka’s parents (the baby we traveled with to unite with her parents found her a safe heaven in another European country. For the kindness of strangers who brought the babies formula and clean water and extra blankets etc while we were stranded just miles from Russian controlled territory, we would like to contribute to their survival and purpose.  We will always be grateful!