My friend Classy Doge mentioned there was a thread on OT lounge inquiring about my family that was stuck in Ukraine.

For those of you not familar with the thread. The wife, baby and I flew to Ukraine in Nov. 2021 so my wife could spend time with her son and parents. We were also going to work on a second baby through IVF in Kiev.

After freezing some sperm, paying dues and spending time with the in-laws I was due to fly back by myself on Feb. 10th 2022 Russia had staged troops on Ukraine's border for about year and people in Ukraine considered it a bluff. My wife being one of those people.

I had some compelling reasons for coming back to the states. I was out of money and needed to secure some more funds from my retirement. I needed medical documentation to remain out of work without losing my job. My visa was about to expire but needless to say I was very nervous about leaving my family in what could become a war zone. After pacing the hotel room the night before for several hours, I started a thread on here, seeking advice.

It became a long thread. I did get on that plane, praying that Russia wouldn't invade. Two weeks later Russia invaded. The wife and baby were staying with her parents in the city of Lisichansk in the Lugansk region. It was 20 KM from the separatist and not far from the Russian border.

As the Russian army moved closer to the city I begged my wife to leave, she refused. One night a mortar landed in her parents back yard, blowing up the outhouse they were using and shattering the windows to the back of the house. One house on the street had electricity and about 24 people stayed in that one house together. A few days later my wife and baby relocated to the hospital where her father delivered babies. She sent me a video from the bomb shelter during a bombing. Her father looked run down, there was a new mother that had just giving birth a hour ago and they were all scared.

My wife doesn't get scared too easily and she had already been through her city getting bombed in 2014 but this time she was scared. I told her that if she didn't evacuate that I was coming there. Chances are I would have been arrested by the Russian military before ever reaching her, but I was at my breaking point. She finally agreed to leave.

She squeezed on a bus with suitcase, baby, her teenage son and Mother a few days later. They were very lucky because the bombing had stopped the night before and they were able to leave. They were taking to a train station and then to a city in West Ukraine. There they stayed in an audoritium with a thousand other refugees and they all were sick.

A few days later they were loaded on a bus to Switzerland to stay with a host family. I met them there. We stayed there a few months while I worked on the paperwork to get her son and mother into the US legally. I actually flatlined in Switzerland for about 5 minutes, MIL did CPR on me and brought me back, Mother-in-law was miserable in Switzerland. My wife's father had stayed behind, she was living in someone else's house, etc. After a trip to Turkey I flew her into Russia where she took a bus back to Ukraine.

Both my wife's parents are in Russian occupied Ukraine as we speak. They are actually doing fairly well. Gas has been restored, they have a generator for electricity, Russia pays them a salary as they are both physicians. Russia has also been repairing the city, bringing in food and prices are cheaper under Russian control. The only bad thing is we can't visit them.

My wife's sister and family moved to Canada where they are trying to start a new life.

My wife's cousin Anna and family are in Kharkiv. Super nice people and I'm love their little boy. He is super sweet and very polite. They are getting shelled pretty heavy there now and Anna's husband won't leave the apartment because he is fearful Ukrainian police will arrest him and put him into the military.

My wife, baby and stepson are all doing fine, kicking back in La. The wife and her son are attending college together and the baby is three now and the joy of my life. I'm back at work, enjoying LSU baseball and spending time with the family.

30 ...

208