Hi everyone,
We are having a blast getting to know our little one; each day he smiles and recognizes us more and more. We are in day 6 of our 14 day bonding period which means we visit the Baby House twice a day to feed and play with him. Between Baby House visits and exploring the town of Karaganda, we have had little time to do anything else! So we are sorry for not updating our post. Also, we do not have internet access in our apartment so we can only log in at internet cafes during our lunch breaks and before today, we have been using most of our free time figuring out how to live here for the next 4-6 weeks. Don't get me wrong, it is a great place to be and Karaganda offers pretty much everything we could need- we just needed time to "settle in". So know we have figured out how to use the oven/stove/washing machine/etc, and where to shop at to make a meal or know where to go to find good food with English menus. Big accomplishments for us and now we are set to live here for as long as we need to.
There are VERY few people here that speak any English so we are learning how to communicate- well, Mike is figuring out that part while I just point and smile. The problem with that is that everyone here thinks I'm Kazakh and expects me to do the talking. I get those confused looks when it becomes apparent the "Amerikaneet" (American) is the one who knows how to speak Russian.
This journey has been awesome and another bonus is that we have been matched up with great travel partners. We feel fortunate to get to share this experience with such a sweet and fun couple from Georgia adopting toddler twins. We see each other daily and and have even had each other over for dinners at our Karaganda "homes".
