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Encouragement My "Refugee" Journal

Where is Home?

I just returned to Budapest from a trip to the United States. On my outbound journey, I transited through London. As I walked from my arrival gate towards the terminal, there were a series of advertising messages posted on the wall of the corridor. I couldn’t help reading them, because I’m a compulsive reader. The words on one literally stopped me in my tracks, and I took the picture above. 

Is home where you’re from or where you’re going? 

It was like the sign was calling to me—singling me out of the flow of people rushing past—to pose this arresting question. This billboard suddenly laid bare the essence of the problem that had been plaguing me ever since the day I took my children and fled Ukraine in February 2022.

After resettling in Hungary, when people would ask where I was from, I would pause to think, and then I would usually say I was American, but I was from Ukraine. I ached to go back, because it was home. It was where I was from. For months and months I couldn’t conceive that it could be possible to feel any other way. But that ad in the airport forced me to confront the truth that I hadn’t always been from Ukraine, and I hadn’t always called it home. When I had moved there almost 21 years ago, I was from the United States, and I had felt like that was home. But even way back then, I was consciously and deliberately moving toward the time when Ukraine would become home.

There was a tectonic shift between my outlook when I moved to Ukraine versus when I moved to Hungary. Twenty-one years ago, my parents dropped my husband George and me off at the curb at Los Angeles International Airport and hugged us goodbye. I had distilled my life down to what would fit in the four 50-pound suitcases we were allowed between the two of us. We were newlyweds, and I was headed to Ukraine to join George in a life that he already had well established. I knew where I was going, and I had chosen it. I was focused on the destination, and I was excited about what the future held. I even started to call Ukraine home years before it began to feel like home. Back then, I definitely would have said that home was where you’re going, not where you’re from. 

But somewhere between fleeing Kyiv by train and spending a sleepless night in a basement in Western Ukraine with my kids because of air raid sirens, I lost this sense of adventure. When I got in the van that evacuated us to Hungary, I was hardly focused on the destination. My only thought was to get my kids to safety. Unlike that day in 2003 when my parents dropped me off at the LA Airport, I didn’t know where I was going (we had planned to go to Poland but decided to go to Hungary instead after we were already en route), and I felt like I had no choice in the matter.

I’ve spent so much of the last 22 months mourning the fact that we had to leave home. I’ve been focused on where we’re from. I knew I needed to move forward, but it was hard to stop looking backwards. The pull of home was so strong. I was missing it too much to turn my face away. And it’s hard to make forward progress when you’re looking backwards all the time. It can be dangerous, it will definitely slow you down, and at the very least, it will give you a really bad crick in the neck.

But little by little, my focus changed. Unexpectedly, I started to enjoy Budapest. I began to form new friendships in this foreign place. I started to put down roots, despite myself. One day I woke up and realized I had a life here. I wasn’t merely existing anymore, waiting for the day the war was over so we could return to our real lives in Ukraine. I was active and invested in things going on around me. I wasn’t looking backwards nearly as much. My focus was on the present and the future. 

I am recovering my sense of adventure. For a while it felt like the experience of being displaced had eviscerated that brave young woman who moved to Ukraine without a backwards glance. Why was it so hard this time? I felt like a different person, as if that woman was no longer a part of me. But now I sense that she’s still there. She’s been bloodied and traumatized, but she’s still breathing, and her pulse is stable again. In fact, it’s gaining strength. 

Today I can say once again that home is where I’m going, not where I’m from. Given the uncertainty of current events, I can’t say I know for sure where I’m going, but I know I’m on my way.

~~~

While I’m on the topic of home, I am excited to share that I just finished the first draft of my memoir. The working title is Finding Home Again. It’s 89,000 words (or 278 double-spaced pages). Writing it has been emotionally exhausting and profoundly healing. I can’t wait to share it. I will start editing it after the new year, and I’ll need beta readers, people who will read the manuscript with a critical eye for what is working and what isn’t, which scenes move the story forward and which are unnecessary, etc. Thank you to those of you who already volunteered! Please contact me through the comments if you’re interested in helping in this way. And if you already contacted me, please refresh my memory by doing so again. I seem to remember several people reaching out, but with the exception of one person, I can’t recall who all of you were, and I didn’t think you write your names down the first time!

Merry Christmas! I hope each of you is able to celebrate the miracle of the incarnation of God as a human while surrounded by loved ones in a place where you feel at home.


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19 replies on “Where is Home?”

Crying. Absolutely beautiful Sharon!
“I can’t say I completely know where I’m going , but I know I’m on my way” <3

Do you have a Ukrainian translation of this? I would like to share it with one one the Ukrainian ladies we sponsored. She’s been in Virginia since June 2022.

First of all, THANK YOU for sponsoring Ukrainian refugees to come to the United States and caring about helping them adjust! Unfortunately, I don’t have a Ukrainian translation of this post. However, I’m not sure sharing this post with her would be the best use of it. Trauma recovery is a very personal process, and if your friend hasn’t reached the same place I have in her process, sharing my post could seem insensitive. Arriving at the realization I share in this post took me a full year and a half of deliberate processing, prayer, and an understanding that I WANTED to move forward–and that’s despite the fact that I had the advantage of having moved internationally three times before! I had to write a whole BOOK to figure this out.

Your friend might still be reeling from all the sudden changes in her life, the ongoing violence in her homeland (the biggest missile and drone attack of the entire war just happened this week), and still trying to figure out which way is up and find friends in a foreign place. I can attest from our contact with hundreds of refugees that their greatest need is to feel connected to people in their new surroundings. Language barriers aside, this can be extraordinarily difficult in the United States, where our culture is so overwhelmingly independent. Newcomers can’t figure out how to get an in with anyone, because as a whole, we Americans are so busy and self-sufficient. Coming from a culture that is more relationally driven, your friend is probably feeling lonely and wondering if she’s ever going to truly connect with anyone. Rather than sharing my blog with her, I’d encourage you just to be there for her in whatever way you know how.

One of our ministry teammates who is herself a Ukrainian refugee wrote this in Ukrainian, and I translated it. Even though she has been dealing with adjusting to life in Hungary, not the U.S., it might help you understand the challenges your Ukrainian contacts are facing.
https://bridgeua.com/index.php/blogs/stories/74-veszprem-community

I love your words, Sharon. They resonate with me as I travel in shorter stints but with a heart for all nations (I keep underlining the phrase in my Bible)! I would be honored to be a reader!

Thank you, Kyla! I love that phrase too! I have a color-coded Bible highlighting system, and references to “all nations” get highlighted in blue in my Bible. 🙂 Thanks for offering to be a reader. I’ll add you to my list!

My husband and I just met your husband today, and I felt compelled to look you up and read more about your story! If you need any more sets of eyes on your memoir, I’d love to help! I can tell you are a gifted writer and I look forward to reading it, one way or the other! (It would also be neat for our kiddos to become penpals possibly! We just started a home church, which will be the future Calvary Chapel Wilson County, near Nashville, TN.) Look forward to hearing from you!

Hi Sharon,
I “accidentally” came upon your website today. I think it may have been Providence.
I was moved be your personal account of events concerning the Ukraine war, and I must say the Lord has gifted you as a writer.
I’ve written a book, self-published, and know a lot about proof reading and editing. I don’t have much free time, but if you’re still looking for that kind of help I would be happy to take a look and assist as I’m able.
Regardless, thank you for sharing your experiences. It’s given me a new perspective.
In Christ,
Kathy

Kathy, thank you so much for reaching out to me! I have been so immersed in working on my book that I’ve not been monitoring my blog much, so I didn’t see your comment until now. Thank you for your offer of help! I’m so glad you found my blog and that my writing has given you a new perspective. I would love to have you as one of my beta readers. I’ll reach out to you on email.

I had received 9 posts of yours though my email and then they just stopped. I just found this link story and was so glad to read it. I saw some of George’s family when they were recently “home” in Kentucky. My husband and I live in Ohio about an hour away from Deborah’s mom. I think this particular post resonated with me in a way all the other (wonderful!) ones did not. I spent just a bit more than a year traveling with just a very large suitcase, overnight bag, and a guitar. Each place potentially would be a forever home. They question “where are you from?” was always challenging. Your meditations on this were very deeply satisfying. Thank you. Our love and prayers continue for you all and the nation of Ukraine. I would offer to read but I probably wouldn’t have time so will just wait for the book…

Thank you, Stephanie. When the book it ready, I’ll post details here on the blog. I’ll be looking for lots of people willing to pre-order, as that can elevate a book’s visibility online, resulting in more sales overall. I want to get this message to as many people as possible.

I take back what I said. I just read all of this post again with Chris (my husband) and we’d BOTH like to volunteer if it isn’t too late! I will send his email. too.

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