... a little more about Noah's orphanage ...

I find the orphanage so very interesting as I had dreamed many times about what it would be like. All my dreams were nightmares though ... every single one of them ... but this place is wonderful. The heat is on very high in the entire building ... old radiators do the trick ... so that the babies stay quite warm. The babies are dressed in many layers. I'm amazed at how many people work there. I had heard that the orphanages in Kazakhstan take good care of their babies and I see that it is true. Every caretaker that I have met has been warm and inviting and recognize and call you Mama when handing you your baby. Noah is always clean and content.

Today, the caretakers let me feed Noah his breakfast and lunch! For breakfast he had what looked like a HUGE bowl of oatmeal and a cup of warm TEA ... yes ... tea with lots of tea grounds. The other families joked that next week, he'll be drinking coffee and the week after that he'll finish the meal with a cigarette! (Well ... maybe you had to be there! Ha!) For lunch, Noah had a HUGE bowl of what looked sort of ... kind of like Dinty Moore Beef Stew ... and he loved it. In his cup this time was some kind of juice, I guess. The babies drink from a cup, but you hold it for them. The trick for me was to get the juice ... from a cup ... in a baby's mouth and not all down his clothes. I took a picture of his lunch!

You'll also see a picture of me standing at the orphanage gates today and a couple of photos of the playground area. (I'm sure the playground looks more inviting in the summer and spring.) I've also included a picture of one of his caretakers. She is changing his clothes because I didn't do so well getting the juice from the cup into his mouth at breakfast time!!!