An Ohio man has been working hard to find his 'surrogate' daughters in Ukraine. | Canva
An Ohio man has been working hard to find his 'surrogate' daughters in Ukraine. | Canva
An Ohio man traveled to Ukraine earlier this month amid the ongoing conflict with Russia in an effort to find his two Ukrainian "surrogate" daughters.
“I just call them our daughters," Trevor Littleton, father figure to the girl, told News 5 Cleveland. "But surrogate daughters, host daughters, we don't need a title for what they are; they are family.”
“They [Dasha and Nastya] grew up as orphans, they grew up without families, they grew up without a father fighting for them," Littleton said, according to News 5 Cleveland. "What greater act of love is there as a father than coming after you and making sure that you are safe?”
Though Littleton was able to find Dasha, he said he has lost contact with Nastya during the conflict.
“She [Nastya] was thinking that the invasion wasn’t going to be bad and that it was just a drill," he said to News 5 Cleveland. "When we discovered that it was a bit more serious, we lost contact with her. It was two weeks ago today that we lost contact with Nastya.”
Littleton said Dasha has not been able to get a U.S. visa, so she must remain at a Polish camp with other refugees at the Ukrainian-Polish border, according to News 5 Cleveland.
Nastya is in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, according to News 5 Cleveland.
Littleton, a pastor at First Church of Christ in Painesville, is the father of four biological children and five adopted Ukrainian children, according to News 5 Cleveland.
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