Yesterday we tried calling Ira to wish her a Happy New Year and to see if the package had arrived yet. Not to mention see how she was doing. We had a lot of trouble getting the phone to actually ring there. Yulia (our interpreter) was so sweet to put up with us trying and trying since we had to hang up with her every time we tried again. We finally got it to ring and for some reason it had put us through to the wrong number! We tried turning my phone all the way off and restarting it and that time we were able to get through to the orphanage. Even though it was only 8:30pm their time, we were told that Ira was already in bed. We thought that was strange on New Year's Eve, but hey.
We called again this morning, a little earlier this time, and were able to talk with her. As always, it was good to hear her voice. What was especially nice was that she seemed very happy to talk to us this time. Last time she didn't seem unhappy we'd called, but this time she seemed very excited to hear from us. It was just different. Yulia asked her why she'd gone to bed so early the night before. I guess someone from the village (maybe a worker at the orphanage? We haven't figured that out yet) had taken all but three of the girls out for the night and she was one of the three that didn't go. I don't know if it was something she'd done or just that they'd only had room for a certain number of girls. We didn't ask. She said she'd been very bored and it hadn't been a great New Year's. Sad for her, but that could be very good for us. It may have had something to do with why she'd been excited to hear from us as well.
Anyway, she is still taking dance classes of some kind and loving it. Husband did get bold enough to tell her that we have good dance classes here too. LOL She said they were all watching some dance show (sounded like kind of a "So You Think You Can Dance?" show or something like that) before they went to bed. The package hasn't arrived yet, but she is excited for when it does. She's made us a card that hopefully will get mailed to us soon. We're excited for that.
Little Ira wanted to talk with us as well so we did. She was practicing her English and it was very cute. "Hello. How are you? Goodbye!" LOL She asked Yulia when the package was going to arrive and before even telling us, Yulia told her not to worry and that it should be there soon. LOL That sounds very much like Little Ira. :^)
Our Ira got back on the phone soon after that we told her we miss her and love her. I was trying to remember how to say "I love you" in Ukrainian and was too focused on that to hear her say "I love you" in English. Yulia caught it though and as soon as Ira hung up she said, "Did you hear that?" :^)
Nothing was said about adoption or anything like it. We are very encouraged by how well it went though. We are still nervous about how it will all turn out, but we have a bit more hope now than we've had for a couple of weeks.
We actually talked with Yulia for about 15 or 20 minutes more after we hung up with Ira and got to know her a little more. She is such a sweetheart and we can't wait to meet her as well. We will go do that before we head to Ukraine so we can take a picture of us all and show Ira who she's been talking to. She said she is getting rather attached to Ira as well so hopefully this all works out well and we're able to bring Ira to meet her when we get back.
It was a good day. :^)
