September 14, 2006
-
Visiting with Alma
I can already see some improvements after four days. Alma is sitting up better and she can now pull herself into a sitting position while holding my hands and then into a standing position. Her legs are very weak, but she is starting to pull herself up next to a table and stand on her legs a little. I don’t think she has ever gotten to touch her naked toes before, so I take her feet out of her sleeper and massage them and tickle her head with them. Since she smiles and giggles when I do that, I assume she likes it. She also likes it when I give her raspberry kisses!
Alma is also making more noises and sounds. When I’m with her, I try to talk just about the entire time because the care givers do not talk one-on-one with the babies very much. I also try to touch and hug her a lot while she plays with her toys.
The other single mom, Marianne, was visiting with her son Dillon while I was visiting with Alma yesterday afternoon. Alma crawled and rolled her way to his blanket to play with some of his toys. Both Alma and Dillon were very excited when they saw each other and seem to interact well with each other. They both made noises and moved towards each other. I think this is probably because the babies spend lots of time together in play pens. There are two large play pens in the baby room. Between feedings, naps and the small amount of time they spend individually with care takers and in walkers, the babies are in the play pens together. There are usually about 3 to 4 babies in a play pen at a time.
While watching the babies in the play pens, you can observe some of the actions common to babies living in an orphanage. Most of the babies lie on their stomachs and will get on their hands and knees and rock. Those that are able to sit up by their selves will also rock back and forth. They all seem to watch intently when someone comes into the room. I’m not sure if it is because there is very little other stimulation they are receiving or because they are hoping someone will pick them up or touch them. I try to make a point of talking to and touching each baby when I pick Alma up for our visit as well as when I return her.
I don’t mean to give the impression that the care givers are negligent or uncaring, because they are not. The problem is there are about 3 caregivers per shift for about 12 babies and that really limits the amount of time and attention they can give each baby. It also looks like they do things sort of assembly line and on a fixed schedule. One care giver will feed the babies while another is bathing them and another is doing something else (they wash the babies’ clothes and prepare their food, etc).
This seems to leave them with little time to pickup the babies and play with them. It also seems the more demanding or favorite babies get more attention. There is one little boy whose mother has placed him in the orphanage temporarily because she can not support him. He is a beautiful and happy baby and the care givers seem to pick him up and hold him more than the other babies.
There are many beautiful babies here and hopefully all of them will be adopted soon.
Other Adopting Families
Marianne obtains custody of Dillon and Misty and Matt obtain custody of Suzy tomorrow. They are all flying to Almaty where they will finish waiting for all their paperwork to be completed. They don’t expect to be able to leave until the first of October at which time they will have been in Kazakhstan 2 months. They went to court today to obtain their children’s birth certificates. I hope the remainder of their stay in Kazakhstan goes better than their last few weeks in Ust.
A new family from Martha’s Vineyard arrived today. Their names are Pamela and Travis and their 4 year-old son Jackson is with them. They are adopting an 18 month old little boy whose name is Maxim who was given up for adoption by his mother less than a year ago. I took them to lunch at the little pizza place that Marianne, Misty and Matt and taken me a couple of nights ago and showed them where the shopping mall (not quite like the Mall’s in the U.S. but ok) and park are located. I also passed on some of the information that Marianne, Misty and Matt had shared with me.
I went to the grocery store with Marianne this evening to help her buy formula and food for her trip tomorrow. While in the store, we met some very nice people. All of the labels on the baby products are in Russian and none of the store clerks speak English. Two very nice ladies who speak English came to our rescue and translated for us. We were able to find some very good formula made by Nestle. It turns out one of the ladies works for AES (a U.S. based electric company IPD has worked with in the past) in Ust. On the way out of the store, two young women who were giving away promotional information for Nestle wouldn’t let us leave the store until they gave us a small promotional gift. They searched until they found another lady who spoke English who could interpret. It turns out her husband is American who came to Ust to work on a U.S. government project, fell in love and stayed. It is encouraging to find so many people who are friendly and kind to Americans.
That’s it for today. I’ll post another update in a couple of days.
