What day is it?

With a 12 hour time difference between here and home, I sometimes have trouble figuring out what day of the week it is. After careful calculation, I have determined it is Wednesday and day nine of our visits with Emma.

Emma has been really giving us a workout. We know she is going to love playing with her brothers soon. Today we heard the “s” sound a few times, as well as ga, ya, da, and even a little singing “aaaahhhhh”. We met a kind woman who told us she is the orphanage’s speech therapist. The orphanage seems to have an array of specialists caring for the children. Most of them dress in white coats. Jim even saw one whose coat read “Endocrinologist” today. We have been impressed by how hard the Kazakhs work to care for their orphans here in Baby House 3. We feel grateful to them for giving Emma a good start in life.

On leaving the orphanage we saw a woman taking her child down the sidewalk on a sled. We thought that was pretty clever, and probably a lot safer than a stroller on the ice.

Today the sun peeked out, and we asked our driver to take us into the Tian Shen mountains after our visit. He did, and the views were breathtaking. He showed us an enormous outdoor skating rink built by the Soviets for training their athletes. We then stopped at Chibulak, a ski area with a little restaurant where Jim ate borsh (beet soup) and I drank chai (tea). Someday we’ll tell Emma how beautiful her native country is.