[SusanE]

Hi there-

Patty is absolutely right and I am shocked that an agency would say that you can adopt a baby at 3-4 months!! The babies have to stay on a registry for 6 months in the hopes that they will be adopted by a local family. If the baby is put on the registry at birth, they can be adopted 6 months later by a foreign (US) family. If the baby is put on the registry at 12 mo., then he or she can be adopted at 18 months by a foreign family.

The average age is 8-9 months for bringing home a baby.

Susan E

[Manoli]

Dear Peggy
I am new on the forum as well. Ând I am glad to have found a person with the same problem as I, because I am Swiss and we have no agency for Kazak. I would appreciate if you could share some of the information you got so far. Thank you so much for sharing.
Lots of regards from Switzerland,
Barbara

[Manoli]

Hello
I am new on this forum on Kazak. I am from Switzerland and would like to adopt from Kazak. But there are no agencies here for this country.
I would like to proceed with an independent adoption, and would like to know, if anybody could share experiences in adopting independet from Kazak. Thank you very much for your support!
Barbara

[Hope2BeMom2]

I also am new. How do we find out about which agencies are reputable? How much can I expect to pay for a Kaz adoption? I have heard it is quite a bit more expensive than China, where I adopted before. Thanks!

[compteacher3]

Hi, I would love more information on processing an independent adoption in Kaz. Any tips, advice or contacts? Thanks!

[SusanE]

To answer a few questions here......

Kazakhstan is significantly more than China, probably about $10K higher on average for one child.

I can't recommend going independently, Kaz is very particular about regulations being followed. One independent attorney did such a poor job of processing one family's adoption he was banned from the region and made the judge so upset that it almost caused the entire region to be closed to adoptions.

Be very careful! If money is the issue, consider China!

[jkealy]

please tell me why your sister did not adopt the 5 yr old, was he ill, we are looking at a 5 yr old in Kaz and just told he has valvuar heart disease his name is Daniel.

[jkealy]

Originally Posted by N2dolfyns

Hi, my name is Kelly. My husband Rob & I adopted a six year old boy from CH#1 in Almaty last September -- and contrary to the experiences I've read about loving your child from the moment you lay eyes on them...I absolutely LOVED my son before our plane ever left the ground in the states. We worked very closely with our coordinator. I received pictures of our son and they answered all of my questions about his personality...etc. We got video tape of him opening gifts we sent him while we were waiting. I watched them over and over. When that little guy walked into the room for the first time I had to fight the tears. I picked him up and hugged him so tight and kissed his precious little cheeks about a thousand times... there was NOTHING they could tell me about this child, there was NOTHING this child could do that would undo the love I had already felt for him. He was my son and he was coming home with me.

Having said that....there was another little boy at the orphanage that was crying his eyes out when he saw us leaving for the zoo with our son on one of our visits. We were heart broken for him because it seemed we were taking away his best friend and he was sad because he wasn't getting a mama and a papa. Well, the next day the same little boy came running at us laughing and screaming his head off...in a sick and sinister sort of way...flipping us a bird with both hands and sticking his tongue out at us. We stood there, literally, with our mouths hanging open -- unable to process the scene we had just experienced. I can imagine someone coming to adopt him and stopping dead in their tracks after seeing that! If he's doing that at 5 and 6 years old...what's he going to be like as a teenager?

It's too bad this couple chose to travel separately. I can only begin to imagine the marriage trouble I would be having if I showed up and my husband backed out of the adoption of our son -- without having shared the experience that brought him to that conclusion. They both needed to experience that together.

Also, is there any reason why they weren't offered to meet with a different child? I'm guessing that by then they had already been there long enough and couldn't afford or want to be away from their home and family in the US any longer. I also wonder why the husband didn't let his wife know his feelings before she went so far to be disappointed.

It sounds like there were many issues that prevented this adoption from happening - and it doesn't sound like anyone in the Kazakhstan system had anything to do with it... it's the personality of the child -- and the inability of the person who did their home study to see that perhaps this family wasn't ready to adopt and was adopting for the wrong reasons. Children aren't puppies on the street corner that you fall in love with when they are cute and cuddly and regret it all later when reality sets in. It's so wonderful and sweet that with all this family had going on they still wanted to make room in their hearts and home for an orphaned child...but, we all need more than good intentions to make this happen.

I hope their story won't discourage people from wanting to adopt from Kazakhstan. We had a flawless experience adopting there. Everything went smoothly and our son is awesome. He has no behaviorial issues, no attachment disorder, no medical problems...he's just a normal little boy who doesn't always eat all his vegetables, sneaks his french fries before he's finished his chicken strips, and hides the toy he broke because he doesn't want to get in trouble...oh, and I am finding weird little things in his pockets when I do the laundry. Ha!

Good luck to everyone.

hi Kelly, we are looking at a little 5 yr old boy in Kaz, did you experience much difficulties with your son learning english and school. thx jacqueline jkealy@artemisinvest.com

[jkealy]

My name is Jacqueline and I have just joined this group and really don't know very much, so forgive me. I have so many questions. My husband and I are looking at a beautiful little 5 yr old boy from Kaz with Adoption Ark. (My heart was broken reading the previous story about the little 5 year old who was not adopted). I was wondering if you knew what region Adoption Ark works in, is it Almaty? also wondering what problems parents experienced with learning english once the child came home, what to expect with school etc. Our biggest concern is we were just told the little boy has a valvular heart condition - (they are getting more details for us) but we are praying that it is not too serious or can be corrected.
Any information would be most appreciated on the above. thx Jacqueline

[pjlanghals]

Hi Jaqueline!

We adopted a 23 m old and a 33 m old and I can tell you from a language perspective they learned English very quickly. Obviously a 5 yr old will be speaking Russian (as was our 33 m old), but they learn so quickly. We did learn some Russian to help ease the adjustment, so that might be beneficial.

As far as his medical condition, I highly recommend getting as much info as possible about his condition. Then have an international adoption specialist review all the medical info.

Best of luck to you!!
Pat

[babystork]

Hello everybody,

my husband and I are in the process of starting our homestudy. But all these documents are overwhelming. Plus I am afraid some of those documents might expire before the process is completed.

Can anyone comment on how they went about doing their homestudy. Is it best to collect all the paperwork before submitting any applications or paying any fees?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Sette

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

Well, you might want to "shop around" for homestudy agencies. The paperwork for Kazakhstan is significant, so if you are overwhelmed with homestudy papers, you will have a shock when you get your dossier requirements!

I almost used the Catholic agency for my homestudy, but the process was going to take 3 months, and required a lot of paperwork from me and my references. I switched to another agency, and the paperwork requirememtns were minimal, and the homestudy was done in a month.

I highly suggest looking into seeral homestudy agencies if you can.

Kay

[babystork]

Did it make a difference in the cost as well?

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

Yes. The costs in my area ranged from $1,000 to $3,000. Mine was around $2,000. I cannot remember the cost of the Catholic agency.

Kay

[Sarah's Pippin]

This is my first time using a web forum, and the only type of "thread" I know about is used for sewing! Also, most of the acronyms are a mystery to me...

We are the parents of two birth children, a boy, 12, and a girl, 7. We are hoping to adopt a girl from either K'stan or Ethiopia, maybe one to three years old. I have heard good things about World Partners Adoption for K'stan and Children's Home Society for Ethiopia.

Does anyone have an opinion about either country or agency? I chose these two countries partly because I have heard that their orphanages and baby houses are better than those of other countries, with correspondingly fewer problems related to "institutionalized living". True?

Do you think that we would be making a mistake by adopting a relatively older child, in terms of their having lived in the orphanage longer, and thus, running the risk of suffering problems I mentioned above?

Was your experience that you chose your child in K'stan, or did you receive a referral for a particular child?

Do all agencies have access to all orphans in K'stan (or Ethiopia, if you know), or do certain agencies get children from certain baby houses?

I hope that these questions aren't too stupid. Thanks for listening!

Sarah