Life Experiences and Waiting

Wed, June 25th. This was a waiting day. We had seen Colby for the first time the day before but wouldn't be going for another visit until Thurs. I am not sure why we couldn't go on Wed as well but we couldn't. Mike and I woke up early as usual and had breakfast in the hotel. I wanted to make sure we saw the 4 couples that morning. 3 of them had their court dates later that day so I wanted to wish them well and get their email addresses. I hope that we will stay in touch. I enjoyed talking with them and learning about their adoption journeys. After breakfast, Mike and I went walking around the Yekaterinburg. We were able to find a small pharmacy type store and bought diapers. I even made Mike carry them back to the hotel. His first diaper purchase. I guess he better get used to buying them. We also were able to get our pictures developed from our first visit with Colby. I wanted to make sure we added pictures of us with him to the photo album I had brought for him.

Buying things in Russia has certainly been interesting. I know only a couple words, hello, goodbye, thank you, in Russian and often the people in the restraunts and stores know little or no English. However, with a lot of gesturing and writing numbers (thankfully written numbers all look the same) we were able to sort out what we wanted and how much it costs. When we bought the diapers, the lady in the store was very helpful. She tried to explain which ones to buy and wrote down the prices for us when we went to the register. When we went to leave, I said goodbye to her in Russian. Her face lit up in surprise and she started to smile and laugh. She started to speak in rapid Russian like she thought it was great that I said goodbye in Russian. It was a nice exchange.

Later that day, Svetlana picked Mike and I up and brought us to border between Asia and Europe. That is the picture of us at the top of the blog. Yekaterinburg is actually on the continent of Asia but the border is very close by. We took a lot of pictures of us standing on both continents at once. I can't imagine that many people can say that they have stood on two continents at once. It certainly was an amazing life experience.

That night, Mike and I went to see the ballet at the Ballet & Opera House in Yekaterinburg. It wasn't a full ballet performance however. They performed pieces of two different ballets by the same composer. Having taken dance lessons all my life, I love theatre and the ballet. It was another great experience. The only trouble was that it was so hot in the theatre it almost lulled both Mike and I to sleep.

So although we didn't get to see Colby today, it was a nice day. We enjoyed our experiences greatly but we were looking forward to seeing Colby again.