A story of my daughter - Crimea in Crisis

[ashling]

Last edited Tue Apr 1, 2014, 12:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Last edited Mon Mar 31, 2014, 10:40 PM - Edit history (1)

My oldest daughter has a BS in community development & public administration from Central Michigan and taught English in to refugees from Iraq.

She fell in love with a fine young man from Crimea.

I'll let her take it from here.

I love helping other people. I get an intense joy out of knowing that others are better off because of my contributions. Now asking for help, that's another story. With that said, our family is in a very unusual situation and I desperately need your help.

Due to global events beyond our control, my family has been ripped apart. My husband and his family are still in Crimea and I am thousands of miles away in the United States. We need to be together again. We need to support my mother-in-law since there probably won't be pensions for a while. I want my family to be safe and cared for and back together again as quickly as possible.

On February 27th, 2014 I left Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine. As I was boarding my flight, men with guns were changing the Ukrainian flags in front of the government buildings to Russian ones. Shortly after that, the airport was comandeered with 50 men with machine guns. I couldn't have stayed in Crimea a second longer than I did, but that doesn't change how hard it is to be away from those I love. My husband was to meet me in the United States a few days later. However, because of the unrest in Ukraine, his tourist visa was denied. They said our story didn't sound real. Why would an American girl come all the way across the world to be with a simple Ukrainian guy? Why would I choose to stay there all that time and why on earth would we get married in the Republic of Georgia? That man didn't know me and he didn't understand the depth of my love for Ukraine, Crimea, and my family there. He probably never saw the sun set over the Black Sea or traveled to Georgian wine country on a foggy autumn day.

We've made many, many phone calls to congressmen and senators. They have all basically said the same thing. We should apply for an immigration visa. My husband will never be able to get a tourist visa with things the way they currently stand in Crimea.

Because my husband is from a region that is now a disputed territory, our journey will be complicated. I need to hire a good immigration lawyer. I have to file immigration paperwork. Max will have to travel to Kiev, which is quite complicated now, and have a very expensive physical. On top of that, I currently have to support my family in Crimea, who are really struggling right now. I had to pay twice the normal cost for plane tickets just to get home. Still, I was lucky to make it out before the airport was shut down... All of this is too much of a burden for me to carry alone. Honestly, I don't see how it's possible to make this work without help.

I got married in a foreign country. The ceremony was a little bit overwhelming because it was in a language I barely understand. However, I will always understand the commitment I made to love, honor, and cherish my husband. We said we would be together for the rest of our lives and I meant that. I would do anything within my power to get him here.

Any contribution you can make to this fund will greatly help our ability to support my family abroad and get my husband here. It doesn't have to be a lot to make a big difference. $5, $10, $20, whatever you can spare will make a huge impact on our lives. Thanks for your support. I can't do this without you.

Her story is at http://www.gofundme.com/7y46uk.

She is trying to put her family back together.

We have tried to do what we could - which, unfortunately, has not been as much as we would like

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018598519#post1

[boston bean]

1. Kick. I hope everything works out for your daughter.

[ashling]

3. Thank you

[Heidi]

2. Kick, kick, kick!!!

[ashling]

4. Thanks

[Heidi]

5. You know, friend,

that I am a US expat living in Europe with my beloved European husband. It breaks my heart to know that your daughter cannot be with her beloved, so I will continue to kick the heck out of this important thread.

[renate]

6. your daughter sounds like an amazing person

Do you (and now she) live in a city with a Ukranian population of any size at all? I wonder whether there's a community center or anything where she could find people to help--maybe people who've already dealt with the bureaucracy involved in getting her family over here. Of course the situation is drastically different from how it would have been....

[ashling]

9. We are in the US

My son in law, Max, and his mother and family are in Crimea

[renate]

10. sorry, I should have been more specific

I meant her husband and mother-in-law, although now I see that "we need to be together again" was probably just referring to her husband and not her whole family-in-law.

Anyway, I wonder if there is a community near you who would know how to help. For example, in my town there's a small grocery store that stocks food from Russia, Ukraine, etc, and the owner probably knows just about everybody of Eastern European descent in the area; is there anything like that in your town? Your daughter must be feeling so helpless and alone and it might be helpful for her to talk with people who've been through family separations and so on in the process of immigrating, plus they might have some advice on how to streamline the process.

I wish lots of good luck to her. It must be so frustrating to have huge geopolitical events affect her life on such an immediate and personal level.

[LiberalAndProud]

7. K&R

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. DU Rec