Bureaucracy leaving Iowa couple ‘helpless’ as they try to bring Ukrainian children to safety

SWISHER — When Viktor, a 10-year-old from Ukraine, left Nikki and Paul Hynek’s Swisher home in January, the couple — “mama” and “papa” as Viktor knows them — told the boy they’d see him again this summer.

The Hyneks have hosted him four times since 2018 and hope to make Viktor a permanent part of their family. But two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the future of their growing household hangs in the balance. Amid wartime, they’re facing roadblocks as they try to navigate bureaucratic hurdles to help the boy and his siblings cross the Polish border to safety.

For now, the children are in Lviv, about 50 miles east of Poland, having ventured hundreds of miles west of their home region seeking refuge as Russia dropped bombs while their orphanage evacuated. The children are from Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, an area occupied by Russia since 2014. Their orphanage has been evacuated previously for bombings.

Despite the dangers of staying, the children haven't been allowed to leave the country as it comes under military attack.

Some Ukrainian provinces have successfully evacuated their orphanages to Poland. Others’ exits are hindered by the disruptions to Ukrainian government operations.

As Russia wages war on the sovereign nation, the Hyneks are told they need documentation from the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy, governmental approval and permission from their orphanage director, who they said stayed back at the orphanage, to get the kids out.

“This is wartime,” Nikki said. “I think for me, it's a shift in protocols.”

Every day, the Hyneks are contacting senators and representatives, embassies, consulates, immigration lawyers — anyone who may be able to help get the children out of harm’s way. Though they’re feeling “helpless” with the legal snags, they remain hopeful they will get the kids to safety soon and shower them with love upon arrival to the United States.

When the Hyneks heard news reports warning of the likelihood of Russia invading Ukraine based on U.S. intelligence, they immediately tried to get Viktor and his sister, Yaroslava, 16, out of the country, along with their brother, Vadim, 12, who Nikki's sister was going to host. Nikki said she and her husband contacted the children's’ schools and facilitators and were told, “The kids are fine. They'll be fine.”

“Up until a few days prior to the invasion, we were still contacting and saying, ‘Please, let us get them out. Let us take them,’” Nikki said. But the Ukrainian officials seemed unconvinced there would be a full-fledged war.

As the children left their last visit here in January, all the Hyneks could do was send them home with money, give them a plan of where to go and provide them with phones they can use for Wi-Fi. Viktor also took along his beloved pair of soccer shoes from Macy’s.

‘Family unit’

The couple “fell in love” when they saw a photo of Viktor, then age 6, and learned about international hosting. When he first visited in winter 2018, he cried when the Hyneks picked him up from O’Hare International Airport near Chicago. He and his siblings, hosted by the Hyneks’ relatives, spoke no English.

Nikki said the couple focused on giving the kids “an American experience,” doing ordinary tasks such as cooking dinner and washing clothes. With some help from Google Translate, the kids learned some English, and experienced Christmas, trips to the Wisconsin Dells, making snowmen and having other fun.

“We’re reading books at night with them, just showing them a family dynamic, because they just don't have that,” Paul said. “They never grew up with that. And if they do, if any of them had it, it was a negative experience.”

Viktor’s first words in English humored the Hyneks: “Remove your dog.” The couple had a pug at the time, something unfamiliar to Viktor as they didn’t keep dogs in the house where he’s from.

“He did not want him around, and he was so appalled,” Nikki recalled with a smile.

When the siblings returned in summer 2019, they went camping, swimming and kayaking. The Hyneks decided they wanted to pursue adoption. The kids have “great teachers and caretakers” in Ukraine, but it’s not the family unit the Hyneks want to provide.

They were close to finalizing the adoption in March 2020, when the spread of COVID-19 put things on hold. Through the pandemic, the adoption expired and other family complications emerged, halting the process from going forward once again. Since then, the Hyneks have accepted an official referral to adopt the children.

Over the years the Hyneks have hosted Viktor, he has come to love trips to Costco and cooking with Nikki and Paul. And even though they went to Universal Studios in Florida during the last visit this winter, he told the Hyneks his favorite part of their time together was decorating the Christmas tree.

“That's the most beautiful thing,” Paul said. “They're so hungry for family and parents that care. That's really what they want.”

‘Up against time’

There are around 300 U.S. families in the adoption process currently with Ukrainian children that the Hyneks know of, Nikki said, and they’re all in the same boat. At the children’s orphanage, she said there are five in the adoption process with homes available. That doesn’t cover the hundreds of thousands of orphans not already in the adoption process who don’t have advocates like the Hyneks.

As countries like Poland, Slovakia and Romania are not requiring any documentation to cross the border, the Hyneks hope someone will be willing to get the children to jump that hurdle so they can figure out the details of getting them to the United States from a safe spot. There are people willing to help on the ground with transportation, if Ukrainian officials would let them leave the orphanage, Paul said.

“They're just in this little niche group of other of people that kind of get overlooked because no one's advocating for them to leave, unless somebody within their teachers or caretakers want to take them across the border themselves and find it necessary,” Nikki said.

The Hyneks have a baby on the way themselves, but already feel hosting Viktor and his siblings has given them a family. They’ve learned what it means to love a child and see the world in new, beautiful ways through the pure lenses of these kids.

They talk every day, so long as the children’s internet connection is stable in Ukraine. The Hyneks are keeping spirits up for the kids, and hope that soon enough, they can let the kids sleep soundly here, buy them clothes, feed them McDonald’s and keep the dialogue open about all they’ve been through. Viktor also will have to make sure his room is just as he left it — “No touch my toys,” he’d cautioned Nikki and Paul.

While the children aren’t in the heaviest conflict zone in western Ukraine, Nikki said bomb sirens are still going off and the kids can hear gunfire. It seems to the Hyneks that no place is entirely safe there.

“We just feel like we're up against time,” Nikki said.

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