A Texas family has each other, but little else after fleeing Ukraine.
Lindsey and David Murff had taught around the world, but to her, Ukraine was a truly special place, and Kyiv was a town she didn't want to leave. A city, Lindsey described as European, but with a special vibe and full of
mom and pop coffee shops so numerous the whole place city smells like coffee.
On January 24th, they woke up to an email from the US embassy to get out while commercial flights were still available. They decided to leave but there were obstacles.
Lindsey, a fifth-grade teacher said "We began making our arrangements to leave which wasn't easy because we have two pets, a 110-pound dog and a cat. Ukraine is considered a high-risk rabies country so you have to obtain a lot of documents to enter the US with your pets."
They were able to fly out on February first. And all they had was "our important documents, a week's worth of clothes, our two kids and our two pets, and that was it." Their children are 16 and 14. The couple also has two adult children who did not travel with them.
She says they've traveled the world and she's usually an organized packer, but in the rush to get out of Ukraine amid so much stress, she left her wedding ring behind. "I don't wear it too often because it's large and I keep it in my jewelry box and wear it on special occasions. It didn't occur to me until I was at the airport, and I was like it's ok. We'll be back in a month, it will be fine. Now I'm not sure that's the case."
She says they thought they would be gone three weeks to a month, maybe two. "We fully expected this would stay at the border and maybe blow over. We didn't expect worst-case scenarios to play out."
They came back to Houston, in part because David has stage four kidney failure. Their hope is going back to Houston could lead to getting a transplant in the nearer future.
She has nothing but kind words for the people of Ukraine. She says she's in constant contact with many of them. She told a teacher's aid to take the Murff's car. The woman had spent nights sleeping on the cold floor of a bomb shelter. She's now safe and has made it west.
"She's safe right now, but every day I check-in to see if my friends are still alive."
She says all of her students are out of Ukraine.
In the meantime, she and David, a high school teacher, continue to teach Ukrainian students, virtually. Her school day begins at midnight and ends at 7:00 a.m.
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