{"id":10593,"date":"2022-04-07T11:05:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T11:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=10593"},"modified":"2022-04-07T11:17:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T11:17:56","slug":"living-out-of-a-suitcase-anastasias-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/living-out-of-a-suitcase-anastasias-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Out of a Suitcase \u2013 Anastasia\u2019s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

07 April 2022 | Bucharest, Romania [Delia F\u0103r\u00e2mi\u021b\u0103 with ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

Anastasia arrived in Romania early in March, after fleeing Ukraine with her family and queuing endlessly to get through the border. Her family choose to seek refuge in Romania because of its proximity to Ukraine. They were hoping for a short war and a soon return to their homeland.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cMy mother was the first to say we needed to leave as the explosions were getting closer and closer to our home,\u201d Anastasia explained. With her family having to travel light to cross the border, deciding what to pack and what to leave behind was heart wrenching. In the end, \u201cWe decided to take some family pictures that are dear to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

With only a suitcase each for their possessions, the family left their home and country to face an uncertain future. \u201cIt’s like you’re going nowhere, especially when you leave everything at home and go to a new place not knowing what will happen,\u201d Anastasia reflected.<\/p>\n

An acquaintance was guiding and supporting the family online \u2013 but at the border with Romania, the internet stopped working. The father, looking for a solution, met one of the ADRA volunteers who secured accommodation for them at a crisis centre, providing them with food and essential items. After one night at the centre, the first night, an Adventist Romanian family welcomed them into their home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u201cWe decided to take some family pictures that are dear to us,\u201d Anastasia said. [Photos; courtesy of Delia F\u0103r\u00e2mi\u021b\u0103 and Alexandr Podvalny \/ CC BY 4.0]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sadly, Anastasia\u2019s father and brother were forced to return to Ukraine. \u201cIt\u2019s been some weeks since the war began, but the sirens still ring in my mind,\u201d Anastasia said. Despite the anxiety and stress that she is facing \u201cparticularly at night, when it gets dark\u201d, Anastasia continues to put her trust in God.<\/p>\n

Anastasia is full of appreciation and praise for the family who hosted her, and tremendously moved by their desire to support them. \u201cWe were even allowed to wear the clothes they had in their apartment, and they also provided clothes for the children.\u201d She also expressed her gratitude to \u201cthe translators\u2026 and the people praying for Ukraine. Thank you very much! I am impressed by your support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really difficult for me to believe that the war is really taking place,\u201d shared Anastasia as she struggled to make sense of the conflict. While immensely grateful to her new Romanian friends for taking care of her family, Anastasia is hoping to be able to \u201creturn home, where it feels like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today Anastasia is studying Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Bucharest, Romania. She finds comfort in playing the piano and singing prayers for Ukraine<\/p>\n

\n

This story was originally published on the ADRA Romania website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What to pack and what to leave behind was heart wrenching<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[72,1070,505,769,1069,1037,1036],"class_list":["post-10593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates","tag-adra","tag-compassion","tag-crisis","tag-refugee","tag-romania","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10593"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10602,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593\/revisions\/10602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}