[lotsoflove]

Hi and I am glad I found this place. I have a few questions. I am looking to adopt from here and I wonder what is was like. How was your flight there and back? How many trips did you take and if 2+ did you have to leave you child or children behind and than fly back and bring him/her home? Was the country warm and kind when you avvrived? And how long did you have to wait till you saw you sweet angel? I hope these are not too many? I left some out for now but I really am glad that I can come here.

[Delmom]

I am in the process of putting together my dossier, so I can't answer any of your questions, but I wanted to welcome you.

[ckeilin2000]

Bernadette:

Hi! We adopted our son in April of 2001 from Semey, Kazakshtan and are returning to Kazakhstan for a baby sister for our children.

Most regions in Kazakhstan require one trip of 3 to 5 weeks, but some regions allow 2 trips. Kazakhstan does require 2 weeks of bonding with your child prior to court. You'll visit your child twice a day for a couple of hours - which is WONDERFUL - you are meeting them on "their turf" and they get to know you prior to leaving all they've grown to know and love.

If you are on the Big Yahoo Kaz list, you'll see the growing number of families who are building their families through adopting in Kazakshtan. The children are extremely well cared for and we feel truly blessed that Kazakhstan has opened their country to allow us to adopt.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask.

Sincerely,

[pdq]

Hi!

My husband and I live in NW Ohio and we have 5 children, 3 of whom were adopted from Kazakhstan using Building Blocks Adoption Service. We adopted Tayte (9m) and Karenna (23m) in Jan 2001. Their adoptions took 7 m from start to finish. Our trip was 23 days. Then we were returned to adopt Garrett (33m) in Dec 2001. His adoption took only 5 m to complete because we already had INS approval from the first time. All three of our adopted children were from baby house #1 in Almaty. Our children are very happy and healthy!

I had never traveled out of the US before, so I was nervous the first time. However, after a few days in Almaty, I felt very safe and comfortable. The people were very welcoming. We truly felt catered to and enjoyed our trips!

We visited our children daily for about 1-2 hours per day. It varies greatly depending upon the region/orphanage that you adopt from. Then our interpreter/driver took us to lunch and then sightseeing, shopping, etc afterwards. The pace in Almaty is slow and relaxing. It surely wasn't a vacation, but yet was relaxing. Almaty is quite beautiful!

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask!
Best wishes to you!
Pat

[cheers2u]

In case it matters to your choosing Kaz...both spouses only have to stay through the court date (2-3 weeks). After that if there is a waiting period of a few weeks added on, one spouse can go home as long as they've signed the I-600 first at the Embassy before leaving Kaz.
In some cases both spouses leave after the court date and one spouse comes back after the waiting period to pick up the child.
You would need to talk with your agency (if that's the route you're going). And things change all the time.
This was all the latest we've been given and we're just waiting for dates to travel.

C

[N2dolfyns]

The flight: L-O-N-G, about 20 hours but we flew Lufthansa and they really take care of you. Once your plane lands and you see the word "Kazakhstan" all of the sudden it seems like it all went so fast --- kind of like labor once you are holding your precious baby in your arms.

# of Trips: One trip that last 2-1/2 weeks in Kaz and a week in Moscow (which I hear you don't have to do anymore because the US Embassy in Almaty handles the final process of getting a visa for the child) so plan on about 3 to 3.5 weeks.

Child: We did not have to leave our child behind, once he was placed in our care he stayed with us the rest of the time and came home with us.

Weather: We arrived in Kaz mid Sept. and the weather was WARM...like in the 80's.

Seeing our Child: We arrived on a Friday around 11:00 p.m. Our first appointment to meet our child was 10:00 a.m. the next morning.