Thankful.....Days 4 & 5

Today is Thanksgiving in Kazakhstan. Because it is an American holiday, we haven't been able to find any place serving the traditional Thanksgiving day feast. So we will improvise! We have so much to be thankful for, a little turkey is not going to matter! We do miss having Thanksgiving with our son and family (but not cooking it!).

Unfortunately, many of the babies are sick. We were confined to Adelyn's room again today. She is definitely under the weather, but still taking her bottle and smiling and interacting with us. It is very chaotic with only 2 caregivers and 10 babies to take care of. Being in her room, has given us a chance to see day to day life for these kids. There is not much time for interaction, but the caregivers do an awesome job and are very loving to the babies. They have one walker, where the kids can roll around and get out of the playpen. We are thinking we will buy another with some of the donation money we received, so the babies can be upright and mobile a bit more. We will run this by our coordinator/translator first.

Adelyn is in Room 11. It is the first room on the right on the main floor when you enter the babyhouse. They have a huge "living" room with a playpen, crib and 2 recliner chairs and bookshelves with toys. Beyond the living room is the bedroom with all the cribs. The rooms are very clean and the caregivers work non-stop. Because many of the babies are sick, we have been trying to help out entertaining the ones that are not.

Tonight our group of Adoptive parents and our translator, Natasha all went out to dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving and all we have to be thankful for. There were 13 of us all together from 2 agencies. We went to downtown Karaganda, to a restaurant called Johnnie Walkers. It is an English/Scottish pub. Michael ordered Chicken (as close to Turkey as he could get) and I had an excellent steak with peppercorn sauce. The food here is much better than we anticipated.

We also walked to the market again today between visits. I bought Adelyn the cutest pair of pink mary jane type crib shoes. They were $1000 Tenge, which is about $8 US. We also went to the grocery store by the market and got some supplies. The juices in particular are excellent, today we purchased Cherry juice. On the way back we purchase a few small loaf of bread from the bread lady. She sets up a stand a few blocks from our hotel and sells fresh baked breads and sweets daily. They cost about 80 Tenge, which is less than a dollar a piece.

Our group is very diverse. We have 2 nurses and 1 doctor (internist) so we are lucky, if any medical issues were to arrise. We have all been eating dinner/breakfast and hanging out, so the time is moving along nicely. Plus the weather has been so nice, some days we don't even wear our coats. This has allowed us to get out and walk and go to the market/grocery store often.

Andrew, Mommy misses you to the moon and back!!! I can't wait to see you!