Another posting from Shawn!

         Last night was very cool. Our driver has a friend that is a local fireman. Our driver (Micheal) speaks pretty good English and asked us if we would like to see his friend’s Fire station. Of course, I wanted to go. It was amazing. The whole station greeted us with open arms and gave us the royal tour. Micheal’s friend also knew English pretty well. He showed us all the trucks, opened every compartment, and explained how everything was used to the best of his ability. We must have spent like 2 hours just going through the whole station. I think Micheal’s friend enjoyed it more than I did. He was so proud and excited to show us everything. At the end he gave me a SCBA mask, bag to hold it in from the USSR, patch from his station, and a very special picture. This picture is a big symbol of protect for firemen. People put them in their homes but it is meant to keep firemen safe. I told them that this was an experience I will never forget and always treasure the gifts.

Today we were happy to find out that all our paper work has been finalized and is on its way to Kiev by train tonight so that we can set a court date. We don’t want to get too excited but hopefully that date will be on Monday. Oksana has been working very hard and I have been so thankful that we have her on our side. We should know the Court date by tomorrow. We got to spend about an hour with Iryna today. She is picking up on things so fast. Names and English words she is pronouncing with very little help, if any. We stayed inside today because it was a little chili this morning. I can only imagine how it is going to be by the end of this month. We even had to go buy me a jacket today! She really enjoyed the bubbles we bought for her today. She has such a good time when we come to see her. Her smile will light up a room.

Micheal our driver is the right of Shawn and his friend that showed
us the station is just to the left.

Iryna was playing music and singing for us!

Her first time blowing bubbles...she loved it!