The War

I still remember my shock, my unbelief, my anguish and horror as I read the late Breaking News at 11 pm on Wednesday night, February 23rd. At 4 am, local time, on February 24th, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. 

I am writing this post 6 months later, although I will post it dated Feb 24th. After all this time, I am still not quite ready to dive into all the details and feelings as they are so raw. I just want to say that the first two weeks after the war started were probably the most stressful weeks of my life. Ever. I hardly slept, was glued to the news, couldn’t find the energy or time to eat. The constant worry was immense and overwhelming. Emotions were simply nothing like anyone had experienced before. Hundreds of “are you ok? Where are you”...

A lot was going on all at once. I just wanted to give the details in short as all of my family are still in Ukraine. 

I’ll start with my Kyiv family as Kyiv was attacked that early morning. My cousin Katia and her family woke up to the news and the bombings, they were all shocked and confused, of course, and decided to gather some belongings and travel to the right side of the river where my uncle Sasha and aunt Halia are living. It was best to be together. That evening, the apartment building across from my cousin’s building was attacked by the rocket...it was a close call. Shortly after, everyone traveled two hours to Zhytomyr region, to our village of Moshkitvtsi, where babushka Maya was living. They had primitive living conditions but they had a lot of food and felt safe. The first picture is a picture of the barn, not the house. 

They stayed there for many days before Katia and her family drove to Lviv and Halia and Sasha to Chernivtsi to stay with family. Everyone was trying to shift West as much as possible. So far, Lviv and Chernivtsi were untouched. Katia ended up staying in my mom’s apartment in Lviv for several months. 

Now about my mom. When she was visiting me here in October we booked her a ticket to travel to Madeira for her birthday around Feb 9th. After some planning and anticipating to organize a birthday party first, decided to by her ticket for Feb 20th, which ended up being a very smart move! So she flew out to Madeira on Sunday, Feb 20th. After crazy attempts to land the plane three times, they actually turned the plane around and kept everyone overnight in Germany. My mom was so done with the stress of trying to land and stuff that she was basically asking Lufthansa to return her to Lviv. Of course, by then airlines were stopping their flights to Ukraine and they refused. The following morning they successfully landed in Madeira....So she met the war outside of Ukraine, fortunately. When her vacation was over, she flew to France to stay with my cousin Olia for a bit but Olia was helping her side of the family too and extremely busy with placing other refugees throughout France and my mom needed another place to stay. Pause here.

My sister...she was the one alone in Lviv. She was not quite sure what to do at that moment as she had recently moved into a new apartment and she was waiting for her “still husband” to bring Aaryan back from India on February 23rd. Of course, that didn’t happen, but that was part of the reason why Lyena didn’t leave before the war started. The thing is...we have a friend who, since January, had been telling me that it would be a smart move to encourage my family to take a vacation outside of Ukraine in February. We discussed it with my mom and sister and we had created a plan. As this friend said, if the worst came to worst, they could get out of the country and go stay in Izmir, Turkey in his apartment. He was going to be on assignment in another location anyway. This is our friend, from Alconbury times, a member of our church who served a mission in Eastern Ukraine a long time ago and speaks Russian. He played the most instrumental part in helping my mom and sister and we are forever grateful to him for all the support he provided. 

So the worst came to worst. On Day 6, Lyena decided she had to leave. The roads were in a gridlock, the trains were leaving for the border, stuffed with people. It was full panic mode with people frantically trying to leave the country, especially from the East. At that point over two million women and children left Ukraine. Lyena and her friend decided to get on a train at the railway station one night and head to Poland.

 Lyena just needed to cross the border and then we could get her a ticket to Izmir. The experience at that railway station...our favorite special Lviv station...was just horrible. They couldn’t get into the train, people shoving, crying, screaming, gun shots, air raid siren and people running for shelter. Those who decided to ignore the siren, got on the trains. Those who ran to the shelters, didn’t make it. Lyena and her friend, being confused as well, didn’t get onto the train. On the way home, they were stopped by the police because it was already pass curfew, they searched them and simply left them shaken. 

The following day Lyena and her friend made another plan. They bought actual tickets for a train going to Uzhhorod, towards Slovakian border. They had a crazy adventure getting to the train station again because their ride didn’t show up at 4:30 am and they had to walk an hour and a half to the train station after a freshly fallen two feet of snow. It was crazy. But they made it. And five hours later, with some delays on top of that, they got off the train, and walked across the border. Then they had a crazy ride through three different countries, with an insane drunk guy chasing them with a knife, and nice people helping them, finally finishing their journey together in Krakow. From their Lyena went to Warsaw...all transportation was free for the Ukrainians. As soon as she was in Poland, we got her a ticket to Turkey. With more delays, she finally landed in Izmir, met by our friend’s friends who took great care of her for the next few weeks. Lyena got to our friend’s apartment and pretty much slept and cried all day long from exhaustion and sadness.

This is also where my mom was able to reunite with Lyena. She flew from Paris to Izmir and then they were able to stay together for a bit there before Lyena went BACK to Chernivtsi with a job prospect and relative safety and my mom flew to the US on April 8th. 

In the meantime, a lot of my family members spread through Europe, some going to Germany, others to Ireland and the Baltics. A lot of them stayed. My family in Dubno stayed, although at first, my cousin Misha, drove his wife and kids to Moldova to stay away for a few weeks. They went back after a while as it was easier to be together. It’s not like anyone knew what the best decision was for sure. One blessing was that most of my family is from Western Ukraine. My mom’s best friends, the Hrib family, were living in Kharkiv at the time....it was horrible. They were attacked, lost everything, had to hide in the basements and shelters for days, miraculously found their aging 80 something parents and escaped that terrible area with God’s help only. I have known them my whole life and the stories they shared with my mom were heart wrenching. 

Since my Lyena went back to Ukraine, she has been actively helping Ukrainians fly to safety and later finding sponsors for the U4U refugee program. She’s been working with our local North Carolina guy, actually, MG is his name. I connected them at the beginning of the war when I saw what he was trying to do--collect miles from people and purchase tickets for Ukrainians who had legal ways to fly somewhere safe in the world. I told him about my sister who speaks seven languages but who cannot volunteer for him, that she needs a JOB. And he hired her! That one connection has enabled her to move to Kyiv, find a nice place to live (as most people are going back to Kyiv at the moment), have some financial independence and feel very helpful in the humanitarian efforts. 

A bit of a flashback to the first two weeks after the invasion. The future looked really hazy...we all did not know how long the war would last but all had hope that Ukraine would withstand the attacks as long as possible. Well, Ukraine surprised us all, as we now know.

In Raleigh, we participated in a few rallies to support Ukraine. The first one was a very moving experience for me and Alex (Mark and Robert were away at a tournament, thankfully, as I was pretty much not able to function as a mom). We sang, we talked, we cried, we hugged. We knew we had a lot of work ahead of us to help with the relief efforts, and this was just the beginning. 

We all were grateful for the world’s support, for numerous messages from friends and family. Everyone cared, everyone asked how I am doing, how my family is doing. I appreciated it all. Do you know who did not ask? My Russian friends (and I have four of them here in the states)...and I don’t know why to this day. I know a couple of them are very much against the war and are outspoken about it. The other ones--not sure... 

I wanted to record these memories here so that I don’t forget... although I doubt I will forget. It’s been quite a harrowing six months. After the initial shock of the first week or two, I could finally figure out ways to help in my own small ways...

Lyana.

 

Mobile with Mark-Winter Southern

Mark's playing tennis at a high level is giving us opportunities to go to places where I never thought we would be going! In February especially-ahaha. 

Well, Mobile Tennis Center was hosting Winter Southern tournament this year, so we decided to go. I was able to find some tickets with miles with Delta and so we got to fly rather than drive a 10.5 hr drive. 

This is Mark's first year of playing 14s, so he is still among the "young ones". 

Right after we arrived and checked into the hotel we were able to meet up with one of our neighbor friends from Alconbury times--Lashea Russell! It was so awesome to catch up and to see how small this world is!

As you can see, it was sunny but always cold for me to sit and watch him play. This was also one of the last tournaments that we took a picture and Mark was shorter than me... Mark did pretty well, winning a couple of matches but having to retire in the last match because of back pain.

Mark knows how to change his racket grips, thankfully. 

And this is Saahil, Mark and Dani. They all train with Cameron Moore in Cary. Mark played a really tough match, three sets. At some point, he tweaked his back and couldn't serve properly in the tiebreak. He even tried to serve underhand which is definitely not a typical trick for him. Somehow, even being injured, he pulled it off and won that match. And he got the sportsmanship award as well! 

Mark and a few more friends--Connor, Saahil and Ryan. 

Bridget drove all the way from the Fort Walton Beach area to meet up with me and watch Mark play! It was so fun to see her and spend the whole day with her! 

This time in Mobile, we also went to visit USS Alabama. 

Massive ship! We explored it with Mark's friend, Brianna. 

It's always more fun to sightsee with friends! 

We learned quite a bit about the wartime from the exhibit, although I could tell Mark was doing this out of obligation:) 

We also stopped by a veterans' memorial right next to USS Alabama. 

After our tournament was over, we had some time to burn, so we drove to Biloxi, Mississippi! We just pretty much drove there for lunch, hung out on the beach with Connor and his mom and then drove to the Mobile airport. 

Mark in Mississippi! 

Lunch at Shaggy's. Mark chooses shrimp every time he gets a chance. 

Mama and Mark on the beach in Biloxi. 

I mean, what else do you do on the beach? play tennis! 

Sadly, I left my AWESOME purple coat that I boat from Costco for $10 on the plane from Atlanta. We got bumped to first class with Mark and I “paid” with my coat. I was seriously fixated on the idea of finding that coat for weeks. Sadly, I had no luck although I knew exactly where I left it....

Anyway! Till next time, Mobile!!!

Lyana. 
 

Madrid with Lyena

Perhaps because we used to live in Europe, or maybe because I am European, going somewhere to Europe on a trip doesn't seem like an out of reach type of deal. It's still super special and requires a lot of prep, but oh, it's so worth it! 

This February, I decided that it was time for my sister to get a little break from her crazy life and everything she was going through. We decided it would be absolutely amazing to meet up in Madrid, one of Lyena's favorite places. I used my Delta miles to fly for free (thank you, being Platinum definitely felt special) and Lyena's ticket was very inexpensive coming from Ukraine. We basically had only three full day together and so we tried to capitalize on that as much as possible!

I arrived on my own very early in the morning, took an express airport bus and walked to our hotel. It was a very nice hotel, situated in the most central location! Unfortunately, they were so booked that they couldn't check me in early, so I had to go to their basement and sleep on a couch somewhere by the bathrooms-hahaha. You should have seen my mummy pose with a phone and purse tucked under my arm, with a sound machine on and ear plugs. But I did get sleep! 

And then! Lyena arrived and we found each other! It was so great to see her! We settled into our hotel and then went to get lunch and walk around. A LOT. 

Here we are...

For starters, an evening picture by our hotel. It was such a busy area, even late at night! 

We walked to Plaza de Cibeles and walked around that beautiful park. 

It was a February Friday and people were out and about, with the country coming out of Covid-19, it was really unusual to see so many people! 

Looking at the beauty around me. 

Back at the Plaza. That's where Real Madrid celebrates their football victories! 

I absolutely love the concept of European plazas. 

Happy to be together. Almost twelve years apart. 

Here is my beautiful Lyena. She brought two coats and tried not to clash with me too much in pictures. 

And that's me, trying to look more European than I usually do. 

That Friday evening we also went to a hole in the wall type of Mexican place. It didn't smell so great there but the food was fantastic! And cheap:) 

The next day we went on a walking tour of central Madrid. Met with our guide at Plaza del Sol.

Lyena on our walk. 

The walk was for around two hours, and, as usual, I can't remember any facts about the tour, although I remember it was very entertaining. 

We walked all the way to the Royal Palace of Madrid. 

I thought the palace looked rather magnificent and very large. 

We decided to do a quick tour of it inside. 

The exhibits were pretty standard, but definitely beautiful. 

Lyena always knows how to pose:) 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around, getting some pastries and just enjoying being out. Look at this crowd! 

We tried to go to the Museum to see some Goa, alas the tickets were sold out and we couldn't get in. 

We spent the evening in the park again. 

Listening to the Spanish songs...

The following morning, we took the subway to de Las Ventas, the largest bullfighting ring in Spain. 

The audio tour was quite amazing and really informational! 

We got to see the bull ring and hear all sorts of stories about the history of bullfighting. 

It was a bit crazy sometimes to listen to all the traditions and reasons and details of bullfighting. There is no way I could ever watch one live event. 

This picture doesn't really show the size of the bull ring, but it should give you an idea. It was pretty amazing.

And funny! 

The building itself is pretty iconic. I just can't imagine how hot it is on these plazas when it's hot in the summer months! 

And then! The greatest crazy thing we did with Lyena was to go to the Real Madrid match against Granada! 

We couldn't believe that we actually were there, at the famous stadium! 

Lyena is a huge football fan so this was a dream come true for her! 

We were tired but so excited to be there till very-very late! 

Isn't this crazy! We actually were at the Real Madrid match:)! 

And that's me. And we all had to wear masks although the match was outside and they were very strict about it;).

Early Monday morning, Lyena walked me to the bus stop to go to the airport. It was tough to say goodbye, but I was so glad we made this trip happen! 

We need to make sure to keep connecting to each other and see each other as often as it's possible. At least now she is in Ukraine and is much closer than before. 

On the way back, I had a layover at JFK and somehow I was eligible to hang out at the Delta Sky Club while waiting for my flight. It was my first time there and it was AMAZING!!! The food was so good! The drinks, the conveniences, the comfort--everything! If I flew more often, I would definitely try to maintain my status to be able to use lounges like that. 

Grateful for the opportunity to meet up with Lyena. This was the first week of February...the tensions with Russian were ultra high and I was trying to convince Lyena to just stay in Spain, but she was determined to go back to Ukraine, unfortunately. That's another story....