Thanks everyone. I copied and pasted that letter without reading it yesterday, just as the mayor asked, and then proceeded to delete my replies countless times. I was surprised to find I had been staring at my blank post for over half an hour and even then I only noticed because it was the end of my shift...
Nearly 24-hours later I still don't know what to say or even what I'm feeling. I've been a mix of emotions all day and I can't imagine what it must be like for Mayor Kozma. It's gotta be like seeing part of your family off, and I'm certain it's was why he wanted to share his letter with us personally the way he did.
I was thinking about all the issues he mentioned in the beginning. About how to people arriving, they're handing over their care to strange people in strange places, and the work that goes into establishing trust, and what they must have gone through to get to where they are now...
I know things in Ukraine are far from over, but it hit me that we've just helped an entire family through their entire stay out of country.
I think this was a bit more emotional for me personally because they came from Kyiv, and I got to thinking about all we've done since the fighting started back in February: We helped prepare a living space and helped establish a heating system in the middle of one COLD winter so Mayor Kozma could bring this family in under his care. Through invites, articles, and letters, we've shared events with them in their new home away from home, we've shared a meal (Borsch!), we've even shared a holiday (Easter). Even as we read this, their kids are carrying stuffed animals that they picked out personally from the back of our very own GRM delivery truck (soft enough to hug for comfort, big enough to cry into if needed). And while all that was happening here, we were busy running supplies back IN to the home city they were forced from to help the people they had to leave behind.
While fighting was STILL happening in the area, we were the organizers and the beginning of a 3-vehicle relay that got boxes of medicine, bandages, and medical supplies from Papa, Hungary to Budapest and all the way into Zhytomyr, Ukraine (almost to Kyiv!). Then, when the fighting was pushed east, we drove ourselves with another load of medical supplies to Lviv where our shipment was combined with another delivery and sent directly INTO their home city.
And now we're sending them, the family that was under our own roof, safely back to the beginning of their return to normal life.
As I'm coming to terms with all this, I realize that family is never going to know any of the names that helped make this possible. Not mine, not yours, they'll never know about this forum, or our thread, they'll probably never even come close to imagining that the help that arrived came from a group of dorks half-way around the globe who tried to make a difference simply by doing they only thing we knew how to do: We threw a bunch of stuff in the back of an 80's crap-box and drove the wheels off of it. The way only we could.
And that's the way it should be, I think. Invisible helping hands.
Individually, our abilities and actions would have helped someone somewhere. I'm sure of it. But our combination of these abilities, and THESE actions helped THIS family, and I really wish them the safest and happiest return home. I'm eternally grateful to all of you that we were there when we were needed, and that we were able to be a part of this with them and for them.
I don't know what's next. But regardless of what happens from here, I'm good with this one. This one we did right.
