Page 24 - D18567 - LBMAO - Reporter - Sept-Oct 2022 - web optimized

installing solar panels in an effort to
support his family.
It would be just over a month later in
the spring (mid-April), when our paths
finally coincided through one of our
Facebook postings and a subsequent
response from Katya who was looking
for a quiet rural Ontario setting. Our
relationship has since grown tenfold!
There is no shortage of paperwork as
one might expect - acquiring updated
passports, applying for the Canada-
Ukraine authorization for emergency
travel (CUAET) Visa, writing a letter to
the Embassy sharing our willingness
to help, and finally approval and a
request to re-submit passports for
a special Canadian Foil that would
be stamped inside. In the Ukraine,
as luck would have it, Katya had to
chase their passports as they were
in the midst of filing for them when
everything shut down. Once back in
their possession and updated, extensive
paperwork was executed for the CUAET
Visa application. According to the
Government of Canada website (https://
www.canada.ca/en/immigration-
more children were refugees-citizenship/services/
allowed to exit the immigrate-canada/ukraine-measures/
country. As such, the key-figures.html), the total number of
family stayed together applications received to date has been
and crossed into Poland 588,290 and approved applications are
on March 10th, 2022, now at 288,957. It is understandable
but it was not easy. with so many filing for CUAET that it can
They bore the heavy take up to three months for a response.
weight of knowing that Eventually we heard great news and
much of their family all that was required at our end for
was still at home – final approval was a letter verifying us
parents, grandparents as Hosts and the location they would
and siblings. To make be living at. Once that was filed, we
matters worse, their heard back almost immediately, and the
laptop and Vova special Canadian foil stamps were issued
and Seva’s clothing in their passports!
disappeared while While we waited for those approvals
switching cars during here in Canada, we set our minds on
their three-day stay in renovating our upstairs to better suit
Warsaw before they the family. We wanted the rooms to
were finally able to be special and welcoming. With close
stop in the quiet town to 100 photos traded between us, it
of Garderen, Holland. was easy to select some for each room
They settled in a small – a collage for the parents and for the
apartment and had children. We knew that Kostya liked
some relief knowing soccer, so we found a special blanket
that friends from home with soccer drawings on it and pillows
were also nearby in this to compliment. We had fun collecting
community. Soon after, soccer art and found two beautiful red
Vova began working

24 LBMAO Reporter - September-October 2022 www.lbmao.on.ca