Retirement Plans are Made!
- Traci Faught
- Aug 7, 2024
- 2 min read
Life is unpredictable and not guaranteed. With that unpredictability we had a few things we wanted to achieve in our lives; we wanted to retire early and live while we could, we wanted to be free to help the kids and grandkids, we wanted to travel and we wanted to help people.
For my upcoming retirement, we checked out all of the usual suspects for a retirement celebration trip. Players such as Italy, France and Greece were all in the running and were researched. The more we tried to settle on a destination, the more our hearts were pulled to Ukraine. Once we knew each other felt the same pull to go, the questions started, “ What could we do? What could we offer? How do we make connections to help there? “
We met two women via local newspaper articles and they were instrumental in helping us plan our trip. One woman, Marketa, was an eastern block, child refugee, and she had been to Ukraine a few times during the war. She is a passionate woman who has a 501(3)(c) that funds four areas of giving, with the funds going directly to the people in Ukraine within 24 hours. She does amazing work and her foundation is the Sunflower F.U.N.D https://www.sunflower-fund.org. Marketa gave us insight to the country, packing and what travel will be like during the war.
The other woman, Yulia, is from Ukraine and now resides here in Washington State. We spoke to Yulia and told her we wanted to go to Ukraine and help. She set up a zoom meeting with her cousin in Ukraine, with whom we had a very professional meeting with. As it turns out, Yulia and her family are change-makers in their communities and beyond. It started with Juliy’s Mom and her siblings, now the kids have taken on the task of providing for their community and those around them. In addition to the normal needs of the community, they have been dynamic in recognizing and trying to meet the needs of a county in a war. They built a new facility for Internally Displaced People (IDPs), another for the rehab of injured veterans, and resources for military families, front line soldiers, widows and children.
Juliy and Yulia’s family organizations are:
We sent Juliy our resumes and with subsequent meetings, our volunteer plan was set and we were leaving for Ukraine 11 days after my retirement day.
In preparation for our trip, here is our short list of to do items:
-Check visa requirements
-plane tickets
-train tickets
-vaccinations
-doctor visits
-dog sitter
-research weather
-hotel reservations
-find accommodations
-store trailer
-get Christmas gifts out early
-what to pack for winter
-learn the region
Prior to leaving, we were able to attend John’s son’s Marine EOD graduation (John is a retired Navy EOD Master Technician), see his family and extended family. We were also able to spend time with the other two kids and their families before we left. It was all so special and we are so grateful that we had that time with all of them.
Check out our future posts and learn how to pack small as we travel for three months with a backpack!
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