Day 14 -

So I mentioned yesterday that it was cold, today we were late for the orphanage because the van froze. I am not sure how this works?? Growing up in Louisiana we don't have to worry about things like this. We had to get a cab so we were about 30 minutes late. It was still a great visit. We were allowed to go get her from her room again today and all of the babies were trying to play with Chris. They were all trying to hand their toys to Chris. He would take them then hand them back. The poor babies just want some love. I wish we could take them all home with us.

I am not sure what our A was doing but she was sitting under some furniture in the corner and the other kids were around her so we couldn't see. Of course once she saw us she came to us with a smile. Her favorite words today were Mama and Papa. She even used them several times when it was clear she was calling for us. This puts such a warm feeling in my heart. She is getting more and more comfortable with us which is great although it allowing for us to see all emotions, fun and difficult. She is not afraid of letting us know what she wants. We are just thankful that she lets us calm her when she gets upset. So many parents in this situation have children who are sensitive to touch and it makes this impossible. Our interpreter informed that A is also saying Russian words that means "Give Me" and "Take this". We will have work on please more when she gets home!

Again today she was not ready to leave and neither were we. We brought her back to her room and when we put her down she backed up to my legs and held on to them so I bent down and gave her a long hug and our translator told her that we would be back tomorrow and that it was time to go. After several minutes she stepped away. I am almost in tears (correct that, in tears) writing about this now. It breaks my heart so much to leave her every day and the idea of getting closer to having to leave her for over a month kills me. I know that this is just one more step to bringing her home, but it is still difficult.

On a lighter note we were able to explore some great Kazakh culuture today with the help of our translators. We went to a museum that was very educational and interesting, but also very cold in half of it. We also walked through this amazing park. When we were done we decided to take the bus back since it was crazy cold, but while we were waiting we decided it might be better to call a taxi. Our translator's phone died so Chris offered his. When she was handing back to him, it slipped (cold hands and all) and because the phone was probably frozen, the screen cracked. I felt so sorry for our translator and we tried to convince her that it was time to change to Verizon anyway. Either way Chris is now without a phone until we get back. Oh and we did use the bus which was about 33 cents per person. It was not as scary as I feared and also not as warm as I hoped. We were assured that it will warm back up in a couple of days. Maybe it will get up to negative 20!