The recent ongoing crisis in Ukraine has affected me personally because I was born in Ukraine.
When I was about 9 years old my dad died. My mother was not able to care for us. One of my
older sisters, Elena, is about five years older than me and did her best to help take care of us.
Eventually, my younger brother Hyrum (Zhenia), sister Heather (Luba), and I ended up in a
Ukrainian orphanage. My mother has since passed away. My two siblings and I were in several
different orphanages. Elena did her best to keep track of which orphanage we were in and
would travel once a year to see us. After six years of being in the orphanages, Tony and Anne
Faber and their family adopted the three of us. I was 16 years old, my brother was 12 years old, and my younger sister was 10 years old when we were adopted. Our Ukrainian court documents were signed on April 11, 2011. Once our final adoption paperwork was completed and translated, the US Embassy completed our paperwork to come to the United States. We arrived in the United States and Utah on May 3, 2011.
My adoptive parents were very grateful to my older sister, Elena, in Ukraine for doing her best
to help us before we went to the orphanage and while we were in the orphanage. My mom
met my older siblings before we left Ukraine. My mom regularly sent translated emails to my older sister, telling about our lives. After our first year in America, we started to do video calls with my siblings in Ukraine. My parents flew my younger brother to Ukraine around his 18th birthday to visit our Ukraine siblings. My parents flew me and one of my older non-Ukrainian brothers to Ukraine a few years ago to see my older brother Sasha, and my two older sisters Elena and Anya, my brother-in-law Sasha and their kids.
This brings us to this moment. Elena’s husband, Sasha, is in the Ukrainian Military. He and his
wife (my sister Elena) have three young children (the youngest is just now 3 months old). My
other sister, Anya is a single parent with a 13 year older daughter and they live near Elena. Sasha isconcerned that since he is in the Ukrainian Military that his family could be a potential target.
They live in the Dnepropetrovsk region in Eastern Ukraine. That area is surrounded on 3 sides
by the Russian invasion. They live outside of the large city of Dnipro. Kiev is northwest,
Donestsk is the region bordering them to the east. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia border their
region on the south. All of these areas are being invaded by Russia.
Elena, Anya and their four children are currently enroute to Poland. We invite anyone to follow along in their journey of coming to America. If you would like to donate to help them, you can do so by following the instructions on the “Gifts/Donations” page.
