[babypayne111]

I would love to see some children that came from Kaz. Please share your photos and give us waiting parents a ray of sunshine....

Thanks.

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

This link may interest you.

http://www.slate.com/id/2132692/entry/2132693/?GT1=7516

Kay

[kazmama25]

Hi All,

I have never posted but have been a lurker on this board for about a year. Much of the advice posted here by adoptive parents helped me to complete my adoption process in Kaz sucessfully. I fianlly decided to register and post. :-)

We just returned home with our little one before the holidays and are finally settling in to a regular routine. Our daughter is 10 months old and a complete joy. We stayed in Almaty for one long trip (6 weeks) although, we adopted from just outside of Almaty. Overall, we enjoyed our time in Almaty and would love to do it again someday. I'd be happy to talk about our process and trip to anyone who wants to email me privately. Below is a link to a picture of our little girl, Emi.
http://www.geocities.com/hopefulmom6/em101.jpg

Take care,
-Er

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

She is SO CUTE! Congratulations!

Kay

[babypayne111]

She is beautiful. Did you travel blind? If so, how many children were presented to you?

Also, from your dossier getting to the embassy to LOI jow long was that?

Thank you for sharing your daughter,

[kazmama25]

Thanks! We joke that we can't take any credit for her cuteness but we think she's pretty great. :-) She also has such a cute personality- always smiling and laughing.

We didn't travel blind but know people who have and had it work out great. Either way, nothing is final until after court and really, after the 15 day waiting period. I guess that's why a referral isn't truly a referral.

Our dossier was at the embassy in May and was one of the many that got returned for additional apostilles. Then, we resubmitted in the begining of July and it was released in 3 1/2 weeks. It took a little over a week for our paperwork to be delivered to the MFA/MOE, 4 weeks to be released, and 2 1/2 weeks after that, we received our LOI. We were on a plane exactly one week later.

Are you planning on travelling blind?

[babypayne111]

Yes, we are. Our dossier is hopefully going to DC embassy this week.


How was the food there and I plan on staying after the court for 15 days and visa paperwork. My DH will return after the 3 weeks.

WOuld you feel safe?

How much was plane fare?

Thanks for youe help...

[kazmama25]

We absolutely loved the food in Kazakhstan which surprised me. I thought I'd starve over there. :-)

We stayed away from horse meat and chicken (because of the bird flu scare). But we were in Almaty where there is an abundance of different types of food. You can find a lot of familiar foods at the big grocery stores (like top ramen, lipton soups, coca cola, etc.). As far as the local stuff goes, we loved this frozen sausage raviolli with spicy tomato sauce. It was really easy to throw it in boiling water and have dinner ready in 10 minutes- cheap too! Also, the bread there is really fresh and amazing. There are stands that sell samosas (like calzones) for about 30 cents each and we would buy a ton and heat them up on the stove. As far as food in restaurants, we liked soylanka (soup), sashlik (shishkabobs) and all of the fresh salads. My advice would be to try a little of everything. We never got sick in Almaty and are really glad that we tried the things we did. We actually really miss the food there.

Do you know what region you'll be going to yet?

[kazmama25]

Oh yeah- about staying alone after court. We both stayed but, if my husband would have left, I would have felt completely safe there. Almaty didn't seem like a dangerous place at all. There was a playground at our apartment complex and kids would be playing down there at 10pm. I'd suggest playing it safe and not going out on your own at night. Also, our translator and driver were available to take us shopping or sightseeing about every other day. You might want to ask your agency if this is available to you as well. If you're going to Almaty, I also have the name of a great translator/driver who would be happy to take you sightseeing.