Olya Schenky, foreign exchange student at Wayland High School in the 2015-16 academic year, marked a grim second anniversary this week of the Russian invasion of her native Ukraine.

Schenky, who stayed with Tim and Connie VanHouten while attending Wayland High School, responded to an e-mail inquiry about her welfare. She has been living with her family in Germany since the invasion.

The following is her response Wednesday:

“Thank you for reaching out to me once again. This year marks two-year anniversary since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. All in all, I am doing well, my family and I settled in Germany.

“At the moment we are learning the language to have better job opportunities and are trying to integrate into German society. My nephew and niece went to school, and somehow life seems to be normal again. We attend events, gather with friends, celebrate birthdays, but we also mourn those who died fighting for our freedom, and pray for those who landed us support in the darkest time.

“I am grateful to God for having my family around and just being alive. If there is anything I learned in the past two years, is that life is a great gift, and so often people overlook some moments, when, in fact, every moment should be cherished, as it is a piece of puzzle that make up our entire life.”

She also posted on Facebook two years ago:

“So much controversy around my home country #Ukraine right now. As I scroll down Facebook, I see a lot of garbage content from the news. This is why I want to clarify about the situation for all my foreign friends and family.

“Ukraine does not want to have anything to do with Russia. We are NOT one nation, we have different languages, culture, views, etc. We don’t need Russia to come and ‘save’ us, because we Ukrainians are happy with our country, our beloved Ukraine.”

U.S. financial aid to Ukraine is being held up in Congress and Schenky’s native land is struggling to repel the Russian intruders.