Twenty years ago…

You might think I am trying to squeeze in as many posts as possible into my August blogging history. Or you might think I have nothing better to do than to blog. (I am still in awe with those women who can clean/cook/take care of kids/do craft projects and produce a blog post each day…) Oh believe me, I have too much to do, but sometimes I want to ignore all those other things, just so I could write my blog.

Back to what I was going to share here with my very nostalgic title. Twenty years ago, on August 24th, Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union. The big overturn of the Soviet government occurred on August 19th, and all fifteen republics that were part of the big communist country, decided that they could be independent once again.

I was almost 9 years old when that happened, so I only vaguely remember the events that took place. I do remember watching lots of coverage of what was happening in Moscow and with Gorbachev (remember that guy? Some joke that the birth mark on his forehand is in a shape of Ukraine. Family, comment if you remember who had that T-shirt:)).  I think many broadcasters weren’t sure if they should depict events as positive or as something that is intolerable—I am sure many of them were still wondering if the old regime was going to return and get after them for speaking out “too early”.

I remember that twenty years ago, my dad was an officer of the Soviet military, stationed in a far Eastern Russian military station, near Mongolia. I also remember that after Ukraine declared its independence, my dad had to choose which military he was going to be sworn into—Ukrainian or Russian. That was kind of cool, of course he picked Ukrainian.

Thanks to all the changes that my country experienced, my life changed forever as well. But that’s another story. I remember that in 1992-95 Ukrainians were so hopeful about the political and economical situation that our birth rate just sored. And that’s also when my sister was born. Things were going pretty well for us.

Unfortunately, economy and political stability is not so peachy right now. Even after the Orange revolution (many of you might have heard of it, most Americans associate it with “the president who has a scarred face because of poison”) things didn’t get much better. Corruption still flourishes although there are so many people that are trying to make major changes within the country.

Today, I celebrate Ukraine’s freedom. I bought my flag in Ukraine with the purpose of displaying it with our US flag. We have one other big one….but that was is too special, Robert says, it travelled to many places in the world with us, climbed to lots of high mountains and we don’t want it to get moldy in this Misawa humidity.

This picture below was taken in Crested Butte, CO, one of the prettiest places in the US! Robert and I visited uncle Sasha and aunt Halia who were playing with an international orchestra in the area and were staying there for a month. That’s the flag I am talking about.

I am blessed to have a husband who is respectful of my heritage and always wants to show off anything Ukrainian.

I pray for Ukraine and its people. Always have hope that things will get better.

Z Dnem Nezalezhnosti!