[6furbabies]

I've heard conflicting stories about this. Does Kaz do referrals, or do you always travel blind?

When you travel blind, does that mean the agency already has a particular child in mind & you're going to meet that child, or do you go to the orphanage & "pick one"?

Also, for those of you who are switching from Russia to Kaz, what is the main reason for the switch? I know Russia is "slowing down", but I'm not really sure what that means.

Thanks everyone!

[babypayne111]

You asked why we switched from Russia to KAz. We had a few referrals that we were not comfortable with as far as FAS.


KaZ culture does not have as much FAS as Russia does. Also, we were told most regions were going to blind travel in RUssia and it scared us to travel half way around the world with what we had seen with the few referrals. We felt God was leading us someplcase else and that is when we found peace with Kaz and the beautiful children.

If I were starting from the beg we would have chose Kaz to start with but at the time Russia was doing so well.

Af far as blind or referrals, I have been told both but if you travel blind they may show you more than one child.
Again, I do not know for sure.

[nsanders]

Our friend is in Kaz right now. She received & accepted a referral of a baby girl. She left last week and estimates she'll be there about 10 weeks. She is a single Mom of a 6yr old dd (China) and is in a travel group. I can't wait until she gets back.
P.S. Her Kaz adoption has taken less time than our Fos-Adopt.

Adoptee, Bio-Mom, Adoptive Mom(Taiwan), Waiting Fos-Adopt Mom

[vcaihg]

I see that your friend just left for Kaz for 10 weeks. What agency did she use and what region is she travelling to? My agency is telling me a 6-week stay but other threads are showing longer stays. We JUST started our process, but are trying to plan appropriately.

[nsanders]

Family Connections did her homestudy, but I am not sure if they did the Kaz part. She had originally expected a shorter stay, too. It seems so long to me. I only stayed in Taiwan 2 nights!

[randloar]

I think that you are going to get several different answers as to how traveling blind works (as it seems to be both agency and region specific). Our agency has told us that for them, it operates as such:

They make sure that a given region has children (ideally, more than one) that fit your specifications (but with one in mind), and then you travel to meet your child. At this point, you still have the ability to determine whether or not they are meant to be yours, and go from there (if not meant to be, they can introduce you to another child).

I have heard many other variations of this, so can only say that this is what we have been told! Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Carrie

[dlbmcgill]

We will be traveling blind, too, and the process, as it was explained to us, sounds very similar to what Carrie described.