The escape route from their farm, in the village of Staryi Solotvyn in Ukraine, to reach the haven they were offered in Midingstorp in the most southern part of Småland, took the Dobrovoslkyi family 9 days. They were squeezed in an old car car that broke down several times during the trip. Three adults and three children gave not much room for luggage and belongings.
Their feeling was that they would start a new life in Sweden. They registered at Migrationsverket, the Swedish immigration bureau, Lyuba, who is a pediatric doctor, practiced at an osteopath and her twin sister Nadia, who is a teacher, was offered a job as a translator for Ukrainians and kept teaching her former young ukrainian students online. Roman maintained his job as an IT supporter online. They also helped out on the farm at Midingstorp; taking care of the animals and the spring preparations.
It soon became obvious that the language would be a great challenge and that learning Swedish would take a long time. They got an offer from friends in Canada and decided that life there would be easier in terms of communication. To get a visa for Canada in Sweden would take at least 2 - 3 months, so they decided to go to Poland, where you can get a visa in 3 weeks.
They left Midingstorp the 25 of April and started their reversed trip back to Ukrainian via Warsaw in Poland, where they would apply for visa. Their plan was to go home and close their place properly, make things in order and get some belongings like photo albums and try to sell the car. Thankfully they got the news about new areas were being bombed in Ukraine. They decided to stay in Poland while waiting for their visas.
For us it has been a great privilege and an honor to host this family in our annex on the farm. We share the faith in the Bible and they have really demonstrated faith that works in difficult times. They have been surprisingly joyful and helpful and full of trust. Their children have been unusually peaceful and happy. It has been very rewarding for us to have had them here and shared life for a short time. We know they felt the same.
Many people around our lake have contributed to fill their needs with clothes, toys and instruments. Rikards brother encouraged his friends to fund money for the family instead of giving him presents for his 75th birthday. We gave them the envelope with 10 000 SEK at their departure. They will need every krona for their trip to their new destination in British Colombia. We will probably never see them again in this realm but we will keep praying for them and we will stay in contact online to follow their journey, grateful to have shared this phase of their journey together.