PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — It’s often said, there are times when you need a sign. Mother nature delivered last weekend for the Skorokhod family of Kherson, Ukraine.
Natalia Skorokhod and her family members had been in the United States for less than three weeks, when, on a trip to Chic’s Beach, a full rainbow was on display in the Chesapeake Bay.
10 on Your Side first reported about the family in March as they hid from Russian troops and rockets in the basement of their home in southern Ukraine.
We followed their journey from Ukraine to Poland, and finally to Portsmouth, and back into the arms of Tania Skorokhod who is sponsoring her family.
With help from Tania’s husband, George, and his sons, the family is making repairs to their new home as Tania is helping them repair their lives.
“They been taking English classes and they have been trying like really hard and hopefully it will go well,” said Tania who is a shipping professional based in Portsmouth.
The transition has been tough for a family that left behind a middle-class lifestyle and aging parents who are too old and too sick to run from the Russians.
Earlier this month, a rocket hit an area five minutes from the grandparents in the middle of the day.
“Thank God that none of the kids were around; it would be like a catastrophe,” said Tania.
As the family is building a new home, they are concerned about their home country that’s still at war, in a conflict that’s getting less exposure in the headlines.
“The government is helping and I am very appreciative of that, but still they can do more to stop it… to close the skies so that rockets are not falling down on people’s houses and killing kids,” said Tania.
According to NBC News, more than 71 thousand Ukrainians have arrived in the U.S. since March.
Tania tells 10 On Your Side that it’s unlikely her grandparents will ever leave Ukraine just as new reports say Russia is expanding zones it seeks to control, including the southern region where the Skorokhods have lived for decades.
“My grandparents are there and they don’t want anybody to come and take their land because it is their home,” said Tania.
