Nearly 900,000 people have fled
Ukraine during Russia's invasion.
Mothers, children, even the most vulnerable,
the sick, the elderly,
those with disabilities who normally
couldn't or wouldn't make such a
long and often treacherous journey.
They're doing it though, to escape war.
Promise Caldwell could have been among them,
but tonight she is home safe in boy C
with her family who adopted her from a
Ukrainian orphanage about two years ago.
And now they're watching the war
unfold and feeling helpless.
Here's Katia step fake.
As thousands
flee from Ukraine,
among them are the most vulnerable
orphans and the disabled.
But luckily for promise.
Caldwell Remember Me. Remember Me,
she was adopted in Ukraine by a
boisi couple over two years ago.
She likes her legs like that.
OK, there we go.
Promised Caldwell is 18 years
old from western Ukraine.
She has Down syndrome and is nonverbal.
Promise grew up living the
majority of her life in a crib.
Not being able to walk,
she was left in a hospital by her mother.
Her mom was like 16 I think when she had her.
Yeah we don't know much about
her mother but she was left.
Said probably because she has Down
syndrome and then she was putting a
baby orphanage till she was five when
they're five and they have Down syndrome,
they pretty much won't be adopted so
they are transferred to institution. We
we had both been to Romania in the past and
we kind of knew some of the situations.
You know that some of the kids
experience just and it's just.
It's just tough 'cause there's not as
much assistance law, not as much help
so they chose promise to help.
There's something
about her, she said.
You're a beautiful girl.
While promises safe and surrounded by love
her parents Luke and Miranda Caldwell
can't help but think about all the other
orphans currently living in chaos.
The ones that they couldn't bring home.
It's easy to see a picture and not
like have anything behind that,
but once you meet the kids and see that
they're real and know that we're here
and we're safe and they're not. It makes
it really hard to just go on living here.
With all that. We have moms and kids are,
you know, fleeing the country right now
and most of the caregivers are women
that are taking care of people like
promise and you know hundreds thousands.
We've heard there's nearly 100,000
or more orphans in Ukraine.
And so to think like.
What what happens if the caregivers
need to need to go take care of their
families and they have to leave?
Like what happens to these kids
before Russia's invasion?
A man named Serge from America who
had dual citizenship in Ukraine was
helping find orphans, a safe home.
He had a certain type of respect there
that not a lot of people have, and.
He's like the key to some of
those kids getting out of there.
He helped get promise to her forever home,
but the Caldwell say just a few days ago
I was just like this. Can't be real.
This can't be happening.
They learned that Serge died
fighting for his country,
like literally in the streets of Kiev
as the Caldwells continue to mourn his loss.
They're also keeping their eyes
on the escalating tensions there,
a place they know well after
taking a number of trips there
throughout the adoption process,
they say despite the bloodshed,
they believe Ukrainians.
Will come out of this stronger.
They never seem fearful,
but I know that it was always
in the forefront of their mind
that it could happen again.
You could tell there was a lot
of resilience in the people
and that they're just like we
love our country.
We want our freedom like we we want
to be able to do what we wanna do.
They only hope that the rest of
Ukraine's orphans can make it out
of Russia's invasion and have that
chance at life. That promise has shown
how you walk, showing how you run.
Yeah, she's come a long way in 2
1/2 years and there are ways that
people can help right here in Idaho.
The Caldwells are working with an
organization called Maya's hope they
support children and orphans with
special needs in Ukraine and have been
doing so for over 10 years and they say
they need the resources and the care.
Right now more than ever before will
have a link to where people can donate
to that on ktvb.com they have an
emergency fund going on right now.
Right
side of war that doesn't
get a lot of attention.
I'm glad you were able to do
that today. Thank you Katia.