It's so inronic, Victoria never wanted kids of her own and never liked cold weather. But she says she loves her life.
These babies were not very social when she first started visiting the baby house, but I'm guessing they may be a tad spoiled now. There are only 2 workers per 10-15 babies and they do love them and they seem to be well tended, but 2 people cannot give much individual attention to 10-15 babies, so the volunteers have given them lots of attention and socialized them. She speaks to them in both Russian and English and it was so funny hearing her tell of the one little boy who was pushing back in his high chair and she said, "No, no." And he repeated it in English. She and a local Kazakh friend have chosen one group to spend most of their time so they can give continuity as the kids grow up. Other volunteers take a different group. Many of the babies have siblings there and about 70% have mothers who visit occasionally. Only about 30% are adoptable. A few have fetal alcohol syndrome.