Day 14 - May 31st

When we woke up this morning, we again rejoiced at the bad weather (imagine that) because we knew it would mean lots of fun at the baby house. After spending the morning in the usual way (reading, e-mailing, playing on the computer, etc.) we loaded up our cameras and headed for the baby house. They brought Katie out in a beautiful eyelet bonnet today; it was so adorable! The orphanage apparently uses lots of them as we've seen other babies wearing similar ones. Another pleasant surprise was that we got a chance to take a picture of the wonderful woman who collects our pampers and clothes, then (we assume) prepares Katie for our visit.
Once Katie was in our arms, the real confusion began. Since tomorrow is national children's day in Kazakhstan, everyone in the orphanage was in a frenzy to tidy things up. (Rumor had it that the president would be coming by the next day.) Because of the busyness, we were led back and forth to different rooms for us to play in, each time getting turned around and brought to another room. We thought they'd finally settled on a room that we were happily sharing with the other adoptive couples, but then they pulled us out and took us to a different room, all by ourselves. At first we were somewhat sad, but then we were thankful for the lack of distractions and the opportunity to see a new part of the orphanage.
Apparently when we were relocated, we were taken to the waiting room for the in-house doctor's office. We sat on a little couch and enjoyed seeing all the bright colors, fluffy toy animals and lively house plants; it was such a bright, happy place. While we were there interacting with Katie, we watched a few infants being brought in for treatments. The best part was when the staff brought in a pair of baby ducks to show Katie. For a minute, she was more fascinated with all the people who came in (she's very social) but eventually she saw the ducks and we snapped a couple of pictures. Finally, after an hour of visiting, Katie got a little fussy, then fell asleep in Sarah's arms.
The only down part of our day was that our visit was cut a little short, plus we were told that we won't be able to see Katie tomorrow because of the holiday. We were very saddened by the news, but we will get to see her again in two days. Dinara told us that instead of going to the baby house tomorrow, we will visit the National Museum. We've all been looking forward to this experience and the chance to buy some traditional clothes and souvenirs for Katie (Erken tells us they have the best prices at the museum).
Our day was finished up with a nice visit by our friends Jen and Jesse. They are still having phone trouble at home so they came over and borrowed our phone line to send e-mails and pictures to their friends and family. After our e-mailing party, we all walked to the Ramstore (a western super market) and made our first visit without an interpreter; it was a big step for us! Now we're sitting down to a pleasant dinner and a quiet evening ahead.



The kind woman who prepares Katie for our visits everyday

Cute smiles!
   

We loved the cute orphanage hat they put on Katie today

Notice the bib "somebody" put on Katie (wonder who it was)

 

"Chewing on toys gets tiring!"

Katie and Mommy had fun practicing sitting up over and over
   

Katie didn't know what to think of the baby ducks at first...

but eventually she seemed OK with them
   
GO TO PAGE TWO FOR MORE PICTURES!

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