SITTING around the dining room table in a room filled with warmth and laughter, it's hard to believe that not long ago this unconventional family were complete strangers.
It takes a special kind of person to welcome the unknown, and courage to make a leap of faith from a country ravaged by war into the home of a couple these Ukrainian families had only ever met a few times over video.
But for Fern Bay's Mark and Jenni Chapple, there was never a question about opening their home to people who no longer had one to go to.
"It was just something inside us that said we needed to do something, it was this desire to want to help," Mr Chapple said.
"From the moment the invasion happened I just had a hollow feeling inside me and it drove the passion to want to help people, help someone, because it was so wrong what was happening.
"We aren't made of money, we couldn't make massive offerings other than extend the position of helping someone with warmth and embracing and helping them with the pathway."
About six years earlier, Mr Chapple did some work in Ukraine.
He developed a network of friends and business associates in a country that while never exactly peaceful, had fought hard against political instability to establish a young democracy.
So on February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Mr Chapple and his wife were left feeling much the same way the world was - helpless and numb.
But instead of staying stuck, the couple leapt into action, contacting old friends until somehow - they still aren't entirely sure how - the pair connected with soon-to-be parents Inna and Yurii Chuchenko.
The couple were in Thailand, where they had built a successful tourism business focused on the Russian-speaking market.
It collapsed almost instantly, and with just weeks left on their visas they were told it wouldn't be renewed.
They couldn't return home and they couldn't stay where they were - they went to bed each night praying for a sign.
"It's a mix of feelings, it's frustration, disappointed, anger, anxiety, it's a mix of feelings," Mr Chuchenko said.
"Sometimes I feel depressed, sometimes I feel pure anger, it's a mix of feelings - I can't tell you what it actually is.
"I feel the first week [they arrived in Australia] that it's our second motherland. We unfortunately lost our first one."
Mr Chuchenko grew up in eastern-Ukraine, and was forced to leave in 2014 when deadly clashes erupted between protestors and security forces in the capital, Kyiv.
For years he has lived as a nomadic refugee, looking for his new home around the globe.
"I really feel that Australia is the country I have been looking for these eight years," he said.
"The first feeling we got when we landed in Australia was that we were in safe. Lucky us.
"It's beautiful. In Ukraine there's a big difference, here in Australia you do what you want to do and in Ukraine we do what we have to do."
Luckily, their prayers were answered.
Going into it, Mark and Jenni didn't really know how or what they could do to bring the Ukrainian couple to Australia.
It was a trial by fire for everyone, with no solid announcements from the Australian government until the end of March and little structure around how to settle a family in a country where they didn't fluently speak the language and came with nothing but two suitcases and a couple hundred bucks in their pockets.
But if Mark and Jenni could do it once. They could do it again. And again, and again.
So two weeks ago, they welcomed Julia and Volodymyr Siedov and their four-year-old daughter Daneliia into the fold.
The small family's path to safety wasn't easy, having jumped on the last train out of Ukraine before Russian military crossed the border.
"I can't say now what I feel in those moments because it's hard, also for remembering, because what Yurii said I feel too," Mr Siedov said.
"The same. It's a range of emotions."
This time it was different, Julia and Volodymyr had someone they could talk to - someone who spoke their language and truly understood the hardships they'd endured at home.
So it sparked an idea - the CH2 Project, 200 days to independence.
Mark and Jenni, working with Yurii, Inna, Julia and Volodymyr will use their experience to help settle some of the six million Ukranians who have fled their country to a safer future nestled in regional NSW.
Their first task is to build a path for displaced refugees to regional cities and towns in the Upper Hunter, New England and Liverpool Plains - to places like Mark and Jenni's family farm at Quirindi.
It's a massive undertaking, hinging on the support of government and non-government services, as well as the kindness and hospitality of country communities.
With a majority of refugees disembarking in Sydney or Melbourne, many will have to rely on federal government assistance for accommodation and personal needs.
It's a place to start, but Mr Chapple said with minimum financial capacity and difficulties seeking employment - the cities will prove an expensive place to live.
"Part of Australia has done a good job with refugees and part of Australia has done a bad job with refugees," he said.
"If we can make it better - we've got a win."
The benefits would be two fold, with job and skill shortages in many regional towns, Ukrainian refugees could help boost local economies and inject new life and cultural diversity into the agriculture industry.
Mr Chapple's goal is to help at least 40 people by Christmas, using his connections to help find host families and the Siedov and Chuchenko's experiences to help others feel more comfortable taking a leap of faith.
"After two weeks of arriving here with nothing, these guys were talking to us about how they could help others," he said.
"They were the pioneers so to speak, because it was very scary, they didn't know us, these people didn't know us.
"They're here and they can do exactly what these guys did to provide a security net around what we're saying in their own language, they want to do the same to help others."
Mr Chapple isn't under any misconceptions, he knows it's going to take a lot of funding and generosity to make CH2 happen.
The first step is safety, which almost everyone under Mark and Jenni's roof knows isn't as simple as entering Australian borders.
"Each day is something different, it's not the same feeling everyday because there's pressures and there's also happiness," Mr Chapple said.
"Ever since everyone has been here there's been a lot of smiles and a lot of tears, not everything is easy."
But, once people feel more settled, the goal is to assist them with three-year temporary humanitarian visas, to connect them with services and make sure basic needs are met with clothing, health care and a home with a host family in a regional town until they can find permanent accommodation.
From there, they hope to secure training, open communication lines for medical and mental health support and work closely with schools and community groups to help them feel settled.
It's a mammoth task, but talking to the Ukranians already under Mark and Jenni's roof - the kindness of one couple has made all the difference.
"They are a big miracle for us, we are grateful to them for this," Mrs Chuchenko said.
"The first two weeks it was unusual for us, because here there are many happy people, you are very lucky people."
The CH2 project hopes to see a minimum of 40 to 60 Ukranian Nationals living in Quirindi, Gunnedah and Tamworth by December 2022.
With the support of the government and communities, Mr Chapple said it's entirely possible they can achieve upwards of 150 people in the same timeframe.
