[britton]

Hi Everyone,

We've been researching KAz agencies and after several calls, yesterday I was told by an agency with a long standing program in Kaz that they are not accepting new families as Kaz currently does not have children available for international adoption.

When I questioned further and stated that the US web site does not indicate any slow down or stop, they acknowledged that but stated they expect such an update to be posted shortly.

THey said that only families already w/dossier's over there will be considered.

The also stated the slow down/stop is countrywide and not agency specific.

Is anyone else hearing this?

All the other agencies we called didn't mention this. If they were'nt one of the bests for that country we woulnd't necessarily believe this.

Any information you can send our way would be most appreciated!!!!!

Thank you!

Brit

[Delmom]

Nope, we have NOT heard this (I sent you a PM). I do wonder though about Almaty. They have been closed for a while. There has to be a lot of waiting children!?!

I have heard for some time that the economy is improving. It would make sense that as conditions improve more birthmothers are able to keep their children. That is wonderful. It does seem from blogs of recent families that more birthmothers believe that their circumstances will improve and they are not reliquishing their rights. So while there are still a lot of children in the orphanages they aren't all available to be adopted.

There always is talk of countries shutting down. As far as rumors go, Kaz is usually pretty stable...I did have an encouraging thought...I can name 3 agencies that are just starting a Kaz program. Either they are very ill-informed or they are confident about the country.

[hml1976]

I doubt this. While specific regions in Kaz may find reasons to halt adoptions temporarily, the central government in Kaz (read: Nazerbaev
) has made it clear that adoptions will continue in the country overall. I'd be really curious as to what agency told you this, perhaps you could PM me?

[prescott4]

My agency has not stated this. When did they indicate that it would hit the website? I'ld also like to know which agencies said this. Please email me too.

[kdibattista]

I would also like the agency... can you please PM me?

[hml1976]

Did anyone hear from the original poster? I haven't received any PMs from her.

[kdibattista]

I emailed my agency (one of the leading agencies) and they responded right back that this is incorrect. I do not want to post the email on this thread because I'm not sure of the "rules" here but I am willing to share via PM.

I hope that eases some of those who, along with myself, were in a panic

[jtsmommy]

I did panic a little...until I saw that the OP posted the same message on another site, but said "agencies" instead of "an agency", hummm. It really upsets me when someone writes a post like this, adoption is stressful enough without adding needless anxity & panic to it. I checked all the "big" agenicies websites & there is nothing posted, if they were planning on quitting the program, I believe they would make sure its posted. Just my 2 cents.

[britton]

All:

I am the original poster and just responded to the PM's that I received yesterday. However, my mailbox was full so I've emptied it and don't know if anyone else PM'd me and the message didn't go through.

Yes, I also posted this message on another board as well as both have some same/some different audiences. The difference between 'agency' and 'agencies' was an error and not intentional as inferred by the last respondant.

So, here is what we did.

We've been gathering information on Kaz agencies and had narrowed down the field to those that we wanted to contact.

Last week (Thursday and Friday) we began the direct calling to the 'possible' list of agencies for this country. Friday afternoon we spoke to one agency that made the statement that they were not accepting any new families to their Kaz program due to the slow down.

This was the ONLY agency that made this statement which truly surprised us as all others were very excited to talk to us and provide us their specific paperwork/information for further consideration.

We told the agency that they were the only agency to make such as statement and that the US Embassy made no such claim. At that time, the person went into more detail about the slow down /stoppage for international adoptions there. We did not discuss if that was specific to any particular region (we were holding our breath vs. thinking of all counter questions we should be asking), however, the statements were general and "Kaz" was the reference.

Long story short, we had a great day and night at the beach yesterday and thought through our next step which is to call the US embassy tomorrow and inquire about the statement made to us.

History: we've been attempting to adopt from Russia for close to three years now and have gone through last years hold, loss of a referral to a russian family, a change to 3 different regions and now the loss of reaccreditation in the May 16 group.

We have been through the ringer in the adoption process (not to mention broken hearted and loss of thousands of $$$) and have decided to move to a more 'stable' country....if there is such a thing. Kaz is one such country we are exploring (along with 2 others).

So, we too are one of those families on pins and needles and are interested in finding out as much information as possible; NOT to 'stir' up issues as inferred by one of the respondants to the original post.

Thank you

[stella1]

Britton,
I'm sorry you have had such a hard time with the adoption process. We started with Guatemala in 2003 and then they slowed down and we bailed and went to Kaz. (Which was the best thing for us, our daughter is a perfect fit for our family, so in the long run I still believe you we all will find our children.) But Guatemala got back on track and so it would have ended up being about the same process time.

All I can say is pick an agency that has a great reputation and has more than 1 country program you are interested in. Then all you can do is pray (if you do that, not pushing my religion on you) that the greater plan is out there and will come thru. Adoption (domestic or international) is way to stressful for any of us to handle most days. I thought I would lose my mind during ours and we had a pretty easy adoption (thanks to a great agency) excecpt for the Guatemala hold up that freaked me out.

I will keep your family in my thoughts and I will have faith that you will find your child. I wake each day the happiest person in the world due to the love of my daughter. I know we all deserve to have this feeling in our lives.