A Day In Our Lives In Kazakhstan

Hi Everybody!! No need to worry -- sometimes the dial-up connection in our hotel dies, so there is no way to email or post in our blog. That's what happened yesterday -- no internet until 10 p.m., and at that point Alex, Dominique and I were asleep, but Mike started to work. The USA is 13 hours behind, so he works every night for about 3 hours, and also in the early morning, before people go home in the US. Mike is very tired, and he is still fighting his bronchial cold, but I believe it is in the last stages of it. Poor guy!!. . . He will get some good rest on Sunday when we are not allowed to go to the Baby House.

It was very nice to read all your comments, and I'll try to answer the questions as we go along. A day in our lives over here goes like this. .

Wake-up at about 6:30 a.m . . . our hotel, The Tselinnaya, is fairly nice, albeit not fancy or luxurious at all. Much like a Holiday Inn in the US, clean and fairly comfortable, and our rooms are set up like a small suite with a pull-out couch for the kids in the sitting area which also contains a small refrigerator and plates, cups and a TV (nothing in English, though!), along with a desk and a couple of chairs, and an armoire. The bedroom contains a king-size bed, and that's also where the baby will sleep once we take her out of the Baby House in a few weeks.

We bathe and get cleaned up in our bathroom (we have to be careful with the scalding and brown water!), and then downstairs for breakfast. A typical Kazakh meal consists of dumplings rolled up with ground beef (could be horse meat, we don't know!), or thin pancakes with butter, or fried eggs and a piece of ham, or ravioli dumplings with ground beef. This is accompanied by juice, or coffee with milk, or tea. Russians and Kazakhs are HUGE tea drinkers, black or green. The food here, by the way, is very very flavorful. Everything is very fresh, and they don't even use many condiments, but the flavors are strong. (I'll make sure to take photos of the foods we eat and post them in the near-future.)

At 9 a.m. we get into a van which is run by a very nice team of father and son, and off to Rudniy we go. It's about 45 minutes away, in a very bumpy road. It's very similar to Brazil, lots of potholes everywhere, crazy drivers, and no seatbelts. On the way we see some countryside with cows, sheep, goats, and rural housing. Even DACHAS, which are small, doll-like houses which Kazakhs go to in the summer. (I'll post photos of these soon.)

At the Baby House we enter a small playroom, take off our shoes and put on our clean socks, and wait for the babies. We play for a couple of hours, and then it's back to Kostanai. The Baby House is very well run. It's extremely clean, and very well organized. Nothing fancy, but well-kept. In this specific orphanage we know that our children are fed very well, and medically treated fairly well. We have heard from other people, and other blogs of people who have gone and are still going through this experience, that some orphanages are not clean at all, they don't have enough food, and the children have awful rashes, scabies (a mite), and all types of issues from uncleanliness, not enough nutrition, not enough care, or attention. So, we feel VERY blessed that our child is in a very clean, and caring environment.

While visiting, we are NOT allowed anywhere else in the House (only in the bathroom, of course). At some point, next week, they will let us take our babies outside. There is a small backyard with jungle gyms, and small tables and swings. Also, while in the playroom, we do not see any other children. Other parents who are adopting are in other rooms. There is a very tight protocol that we all need to follow while adopting, and we stick by that. I know that by the end of our 15-day visit we will be allowed to see the baby's room, the one she shares with perhaps another 10 babies. Each has his/her own crib. We will also be able to see the kitchen, and meet the caregivers. We look forward to all that. By the way, before they come into these Baby Houses, children spend some months in a Baby Hospital. Sofia is from the small town of Zhitikhara, which is much too far to visit, otherwise we would take photos of it. We will soon take photos of the outside of the Baby House.

The Baby House keeps a VERY tight schedule with the feedings, naps, playtime, etc. etc. We are NEVER allowed to feed them, but that's ok because we see that Sofia is very healthy. Her skin is clear, and she is very clean and well fed. We know they don't get much of a variety of foods, but for certain their foods are all natural. The one thing we will do away with, though, is the black tea these children are given throughout the day!!!

So, once back in Kostanai, we usually go to lunch. We have had great Chinese food, and German food, and our favorite is Dolce Vita, Italian cuisine. Their pizza is very thin, and their pasta really flavorful -- they don't use any sauces, and yet it's all extremely flavorful. Their vegetables are fabulous, and everything is very fresh.

After lunch we walk around a bit. The weather is lovely. We have had a couple of 88 - 90 degree weather, but for the most part it's been in the 70s, and at night it's nice and cool. We go to a park to breathe in the fresh air from the trees, or have an ice-cream somewhere (their ice-cream is pure cream and delicious!), and then we are back in our rooms for the rest of the day. There is a Chinese Market which Sandy, Helen and I will be going to next week to purchase some interesting Kazakh items, and we will not take the children and will have to keep our purses tight. Not a very friendly place for children. Anyway, we have been playing games such as Chess, cards, Sorry, etc., the kids have been creating stories and writing them, or they play Game Boy games, or we all watch DVD movies, and we read a lot, as well as post on the blog and read email messages. Dominique has gone through almost all her books -- about 11 of them so far, and we are almost running out! She will just have to re-read them! She is such an avid reader.

Then it's time to go to bed. I usually cut up some fruit, and we have yogurt with that (Great yogurt here!), and I make a cheese sandwich for all of us, with some delicious cherry juice, and then it's off to bed. And then it's morning, and it all starts all over again. . .