Sunday 4/29/07 - The bonding continues

Ira & I are getting along very very well, aside from the language barrier. Fortunately Ira has had some rudimentary English in her schooling so we are not starting from scratch. She still tends to only say yes, no and OK as she seems self conscious of making mistakes. When I ask her to repeat words she is fine and tries very hard but then can't remember them, so we try to keep things to a minimum. I am trying to get her to memorize her new address and phone number. She was able to say "John Shropshire" the first attempt! That's better than most at home! The main thing is that she seems very relaxed and at ease. The fact that there is so much around us in her own language that she doesn't hear enough English to be concerned about thinking in English. She really livens up when we around others who speak Russian/Ukrainian.

Ira & I went shopping together to a big open market. We found a number of things and when she saw that I was struggling trying to get people to understand what I wanted, Ira took over, sensing my desires and then took the right amount of money from me and made the purchase.

Later, Misha and his interpreter friend, picked us up. We got all the passport pictures taken that will be needed in Kharkiv, tried driving to get some other things but spent most of our time in heavy traffic... We went on to a soccer game at one of the very large stadiums (another first for Ira). It was a good game. The local team won 2 to 1 against a Russian team. The 4 of us then went to dinner at a restaurant called Myctahr (Mustang). Ira was non-stop talking and laughing. It was good to see. We went back to our place where she couldn't wait to put on her PJ's and lay in bed and watch another Harry Potter movie. The country is on a 5 day holiday (May Day) which started yesterday and goes until Wed. (5/2). We are hoping to leave on 5/3 to Kharkiv. If we can get the court papers on 5/3 or 5/4 we will try for the new birth certificate, then on 5/7 go for Ira's passport. Then on Kyiv and another holiday (5/9). I don't want to anticipate too much beyond that because we have truly learned to expect the unexpected!