"On the second day at the orphanage, we made our two daily visits
to hang out with little Kyle. We spend two hours with him each visit.
The pictures include a picture of Kyle's first "High-Five" and him
with Mommy. Kyle loves to look out the window and he and Grampy
spend time looking at the dreary skies, the birds and occasional
people that come below. We had a glitch as our converter burned
out and we have spent time going all over Kazan to find an
American converter and finally, our efforts were successful. We
recently returned from our first visit on Day 3 to the orphange and
will be leaving shortly for our afternoon visit. Apparently, they
realized that Floridians were coming to Kazan because we have
seen no snow and it really has been mild for a Russian winter.
The Vulga river is usually closed to commerce because it is is
frozen but has been kept open because it is warmer than usual.
They have, however, gone to somewhat of an extreme in the
orphanage as they have cranked up the heat in the little room
where we visit with Kyle. I think it is about 80 degrees in that
room and considering all we have are sweaters and long sleeve
clothing, it gets extremely hot! Next time, we will be bringing some short
sleeve clothes....And they say Floridians get cold! I think that these
people are typically at a much warmer temperature than our AC temps
particulary with the wool sweaters!!"