Week of March 14 – March 20
While working on determining next steps, we needed to find housing for the family for at least a few weeks in Paris. Finding housing proved to be much more difficult than we had original anticipated. We initially expected to be able to quickly find an AirBnb/VRBO to book for them, but after trying to contact four different hosts with no success/responses from them, we decided to book directly from a hotel. They were able to move into the hotel yesterday and everyone is excited to have some space after spending the last 6 days in a 2 bedroom apartment with 8 people! We are hopeful to have next steps determined by the time those 3 weeks are up.
While this week has still been difficult in a crammed space, it has been full of fun and memorable moment. Some of these include: the family going to the store by themselves and not being able to find sugar at the store due to a language barrier, getting a new stroller for the baby, going to the doctor for a 3 month baby checkup, and more gymnastics from Violetta.
Next Steps
The initial plan was to get them here to Utah in the United States as soon as possible. We quickly have found out that “as soon as possible” is 15 years. We are all sad and extremely disappointed that the United States doesn’t have a better immigration system in place to be able to get our family here. If anyone has connections or knowledge of how to help get them here sooner, please reach out to us through our “Contact Us” page or reach out to your representative about needing to improve our immigration system.
The alternative locations that we are looking at now are Canada, France, or Latvia. Canada seems to be the preference for now with the best setup for them and closest to us, followed by staying in France. We are grateful to these countries and the people in them for giving this support and aid to our family. If you would like to give to help out, you can do so on the “Gifts/Donations” tab. Thank you all!
