Heard from Ira!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I was finally able to get a phone call thru to Larisa who is a teacher about 2 hrs. from Ira. She teaches some at her orphanage and also travels here with the children during all host trips as a guardian/translator. Tom & I were getting worried that we couldn't talk to Ira yet - we're still working on that - it's complicated. But at the very least we just wanted to get a message to her to reassure her that we were still working away and coming as quickly as possible. So I was thrilled when I reached Larisa by phone. She understood our heartache and agreed to phone the orphange director the next day. Well, late on Wed. I received an e-mail from Larisa saying that she did indeed call the oprhanage director and she got Ira to come to the phone. So Larisa told Ira that we loved her and missed her and that we were working like crazy to get the papers straight and that it should not be too many more weeks. She said Ira was so happy to hear from us and that she loved us and missed us and "was waiting for us". She also told Larisa she was working hard in her studies. That was one PRECIOUS E-MAIL!!!!!! Thank you Larisa from the bottom of our hearts!!!!