Native Pittsburgh Family Evacuates Ukraine With Newborn Girl
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - With tensions escalating on the Russian border, one native Pittsburgh family is forever grateful they were able to get their newborn out of Ukraine safely.
Pam Surano has the story of a family who went overseas to use an International surrogacy agency and are counting their blessings.
When the Banno's left for Ukraine they knew there were escalating tensions, but at that point, nothing in the world could have stopped them from bringing their little girl home.
"This is baby Zlata," proud new parents Jonathan Banno and Holly Hruby-Banno boast.
At 3 weeks old, baby Zlata already has quite a life story.
"We were on a mission to go get our little girl regardless of what the advisory said. We were going," Jonathan told KDKA News.
Holly and Jonathan were planning a family after marrying a little later in life. They decided on a surrogate pregnancy and selected Adonis's international program in Ukraine.
"I wanted to make sure that we were involved with a program that did very, very right by the surrogate mother," Holly said.
Even before they left their current home in Southern California, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning as Russian troops gathered on the borders of Ukraine. Once the couple arrived in the country in January, things rapidly changed.
"It started to get a little more heightened. Americans were encouraged to evacuate," Holly said.
No sooner had they settled in to meet and bond with their baby, the Department of State sent another warning to travelers. Holly saw the alert in the middle of the night while up feeding the baby.
"I woke up my husband and said, 'Jonathan, they are encouraging Americans to evacuate.'" The news mom explained that "we just decided that it was time for us to go and we had better move and we had better move fast."
But first a passport was needed for baby Zlata to even leave the country. They traveled to the embassy in Kyiv where they were issued emergency paperwork. Since the couple has left the country, the U.S. embassy has been moved out of Kyiv.
As for the Bannos, they plan on moving back to Pittsburgh to raise baby Zlata.