Help us support my parents - Ukrainian refugees

My name is Yuliya Zhosan and I’m a first generation of immigrants from Ukraine. All my family and relatives are still in Ukraine. I live in America with my husband and two kids.

 

After the war started, my parents had to evacuate from Kyiv leaving everything behind (their motherland, home, all possessions, everything they’ve ever known or owned) trying to escape the devastating war and just trying to survive.

 

Putin started a full-scale invasion early in the morning of 2/24/22 when my parents were safely asleep in their home. It was my kids’ 8th birthday the day the war started in Ukraine. A sense of shock, panic and total disbelief emerged as an entire world was watching paralyzed when missiles started flying and destroying the military bases and airports all around the country. Putin was invading aggressively and unapologetically stumping on humanity, democracy and human rights. Missiles have been fired right and left, hitting kindergartens, hospitals and random civilians on the streets. An invasion turned into a full-blown war, which quickly escalated into a genocide of Ukrainian nation. My parents didn’t want to leave Ukraine until the last moment but when a missile hit an apartment complex next to theirs, they realized they had to evacuate to save their lives. They didn’t do it for themselves. They wanted to see their grandsons who they didn’t see since the beginning of pandemic. They wanted to save themselves for their grandchildren.

 

My parents spent days driving to the Polish border: they’ve driven through winter and snow, active shootings, airplane attacks, and constant military check points, looking for places to stay to observe the curfew in unknown cities flooded with refugees. A sense of helplessness and panic emerged when I didn’t hear from them either because there was no service or their cell phone batteries died. You wait until the next day and then the next day… Time slows down and silence is deafening….

 

It is truly disheartening to be waking up in the morning and instead of having a cup of coffee, checking if your relatives and friends are alive. Are they alive today? Will they be alive tomorrow? You ask these hard questions every single day by having a mental conversation with yourself. It’s too scary to ask them out loud. Still no answers. More questions. If you’re lucky today, it may not be the case tomorrow. It is even more frightening when they text you before they go to bed to say “goodbye,” and you can read between the lines that they, just as well as you, understand that this may be the last “goodbye.”

 

Once my parents reached Lviv by car, they had to cross the polish border on foot. It is a winter and people had to stand for 16 hours without any possibility to sit down and/or get any rest waiting for thousands of refugees to go through the border.

 

My parents got lucky and they’re alive. They made it to the other side where the sky is blue and where kids laugh and smile. They most likely have PTSD and will have it for quite some time. Just like all of us who helplessly watch our families and relatives getting killed in Ukraine.

 

They have absolutely nothing here in America. The left everything behind. Now we need help with legal and transportation expenses as well. 

In order to have a life here with us they need everything to start from scratch. Health insurance, psychological help, money to get clothes, furniture, etc. to name a few. I work very hard to provide for my family but with all the incoming bills to pay and additional expenses to get the tickets and such, I need to raise money to make sure my parents are welcomed here and have a good chance to start over.

 

Additionally, we’re supporting my husband’s family back in Ukraine. His elderly parent’s health most likely will not allow them to evacuate even when the situation gets dire. In a recent conversation, understanding that, they said “we’ve had a good life…” They’re currently being cared for by my husband’s sister, who also takes care of her handicapped kid and volunteers as much as she can to help the others. She is determined to stay with their parents until “the missiles start hitting the neighborhood…” (although we hope that would never happen).

 

We’ll do absolutely everything possible and impossible to support my parents here, as well as to support my husband’s family in Ukraine and help evacuate my husband’s family if needed.

 

 

 

Thank you for your generosity and support from the bottom of my heart!

 

 

 

God Bless!

 

Yuliya