I am a typical Ukrainian girl who grew up in my nation, on my land, in my home…
One morning, before the sun had even risen, my entire country awoke; every one woke up at the same moment on the same day!
I won’t say it was terrifying since reading, watching, or hearing about the conflict isn’t the same as experiencing it! I can only say that even an atheist would pray on a day like that. In this world there are people who are our neighbors on earth, even if they live on another continent, and let me tell you about my myself, one of your new neighbors.
My name is Anna, I flew here with my boyfriend Oleksandr, we are a young couple who had plans and dreams, but we had no idea that our main goal would be to stay alive. I’ll be honest, decisions like leaving your warring country are very hard to make, every day you struggle with your own thoughts and feelings! And there was always a question of where to go!?
We were really lucky, because many wanted to leave Ukraine, but didn’t have the time, many want to, but can’t.
America is safe. This security given by America is a gift (could you ever think that security would be a gift? I couldn’t either before now.) From the first days in Minnesota, we felt support from its people, from people at supermarkets to government structures.
To live only a couple of months in America and to already have the opportunity to live in an apartment, to create comfort in it, and have a job, is simply a miracle that we did not even believe in.
When we flew across the ocean, we prepared ourselves that it would be very, very difficult for us to start our lives over from scratch. I have so much here, although before I would have considered all of it to just be ordinary things!
I already want to thank you for your help, Oleksandr and I sincerely thank Arrive Ministries from the bottom of our hearts. Your moral, material and financial help is very important and valuable for us, thanks to this, our stay here became easier. Our start, which we were so afraid of, was as comfortable as possible! Thank you for your help!
We also want to thank Bikes4Kids for helping us with the bikes, because when we arrived we only had bus passes and it took a long time to sort things out, but you helped us a lot and now we are able to get around town and enjoy the beauty of this place and maintain physical health. It was my dream to have a bicycle!
