When the war began in Ukraine in February 2022, our family lost everything overnight. The market where my husband and I worked was destroyed, our children could not study normally, and the constant explosions terrified us for their safety. In the first days of the war, our middle son suffered severe psychological shock and stopped speaking altogether – thankfully, with time, he began to recover.

We fled because we had no other choice. We wanted safety for our three sons and a future where they would not grow up surrounded by fear.

In 2023, through the Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian sponsorship program, a wonderful family from Cooperstown, New York, welcomed us to the United States. They completed all the paperwork for us, hosted us on their small farm and treated us like their own family. 

Shortly after, we moved to Illinois, where

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