An American couple who have been living in Kiev since
November 2013 to complete the adoption of four Ukrainian children spoke
Friday of how life is slowly returning to normal, after a week of mass
chaos and violence in the country's capital.
"Things are
better but it's still a tentative situation so we're just trying to get
out of here before anything else happens – hopefully nothing does -
hopefully things continue to get better," said Lisa Bundy, in a
telephone interview with CBS News from Kiev.
Bundy, from Montgomery, Ala., and her husband,
David, a photographer, have been staying in an apartment approximately
half-a-mile from Independence Square, the location in Kiev where most of
the protests and violence have unfolded.
When they arrived in
November, Bundy said they were not overly concerned by the political
situation in the country, and that the protests were similar to those in
the U.S.
"It was basically like 20 people down on the square with
signs. It wasn't really that big of a deal, it was just like how
everybody is always in front of the White House every day," said Bundy.
"But
then it slowly got bigger, and slowly got bigger, but we walked through
it all the time, and most people there were pretty friendly, you didn't
bother them and they didn't bother you," she said.
Anti-government protesters face off with police in Kiev, Ukraine, Jan. 20, 2014.
David Bundy
"If
you talked to them and asked to take their pictures, they were like,
'OK sure.' If they found out you were American, they were always very
welcoming: 'America good, freedom.' They had a very good opinion of
America in general," said Bundy.
The apartment the family is
staying in is not on a main street, shielding them from witnessing most
of the violence, although they heard gun shots from their windows.
Anti-government protesters face off with police in Kiev, Ukraine, Jan. 20, 2014.
David Bundy
"We
mostly have been staying in the apartment, except today [Friday]. We
only went out for about 20 minutes yesterday; the kids didn't go out at
all except for today. We tried to mostly play games, and watch movies,
and keep their minds off of it," said Bundy.
Lisa and David have been
in the process of adopting their four children since June 2013. The
adoption process for the youngest three, who are biological siblings, is
complete, but they are waiting for papers for their fourth child, a
16-year-old girl.
"My youngest three are done; they have the visas
and are legally ours. My oldest daughter- we're just in the waiting
period for her- the concern here is the passport," said Bundy.
"They
need a Ukrainian passport [to leave the country] so you need the
Ukrainian government to function so we can do that," she added.
Her
husband and the three youngest children are scheduled to fly back to
the U.S. early next week. Bundy is hopefully she will receive the
paperwork for her eldest by the end of the month, and fly back with her
soon after.
In the meantime, as the situation in Kiev calmed Friday, the Bundys took a walk with their children to Independent Square.
"A lot of people were out, with their kids. Old people, it wasn't bad," said Bundy.
"It
was pretty interesting to walk on history; my husband looked at me and
said, 'I'm really glad we did this.' We definitely stayed all together
but they [the children] needed to know what happened in their country,
so they can understand what the fight for freedom was about," Bundy
said.
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