Becoming Accidental Refugees
War turned our lives upside down and opened my eyes to an entire world of people on the move
It has been six months but I think we found a home. Seems all of us are relatively happy now. My son actually believes we won’t be moving again.
Still, in legal limbo, we are trying — oh, how we are trying — to get a temporary visa so we can do the things that most people in the world take for granted — like sending our son to a local school, opening a bank account, and going to the dentist.
One cannot get a job without documentation and the “raining” on this long longer-than-planned day rapidly depletes my small savings. I tell my wife, “we need to find someplace so I can concentrate on finding a new job to stop the bleeding.” The bleeding is the endless outflow of cash for hotels, restaurants, etc. Having reached 50 years old, my professional options dwindle with each passing year making it more likely that I will be working forever.
Our trip to Austria, which started on February 26th, two days after Ukraine was invaded, turned into an exile of sorts from our life, our home, family, and friends.
Don’t get me wrong, we have it better than most of the Ukrainians we have come across in our travels. Many of them have lost family and friends…
