[carolynFL]

My husband and I are looking into adoption and would like to know any experiences you had with either Little Miracles or World Partners. One agency does a referral and the other doesn't, any experience with having a referral and not having one. Please PM with any information that would be helpful...good or bad.


Carolyn

[JLizMom]

Anyone with experience with EAC in Kazakhstan. Please PM with your experience. Thanks!!

[JenniferKaz]

I would not let the fact that one agency does referrals be a driving decision point.

Referrals are still technically not allowed, and can be lost prior to travelling.

We travelled blind, and once we got over the initial freaking out of travelling around the world without the photo of a child,we were happy. I would think it would be difficult to have a photo for weeks or months and have it not work out.

I would talk to the agencies more about the regions they work in, and the options ifyou arrive in a region without children available that match your homestudy.

[kcolange]

I have experience with both. I had a referral for a little boy, but I had to fly half way around the world to turn the referral down becasue the information I received on him indicated he had health issues I could not handle. So, I ended up staying in country and traveling blind to another region. I chose my daughter from 3 children and it is a match made in heaven!

A referral is not a guarantee in Kazakhstan either way.

Kelly

[stella1]

Hi,
Referral's and holding is not allowed but that being said if you want a girl and an infant you want to go when there are some available. I had a "referral" of sorts and it worked out great. But we always knew that we could get there and someone else could have already adopted her. That being said we wanted a girl and under 12 months so our "best odds" was the referral way. But again no guarantees. I would talk to both agencies about it. I have know people who traveled blind but then again were not sent over until they knew they had a couple of children that matched the criteria. Though as I write this I'm not sure if they let you pick the sex of the child. When we did our adoption we were able to say Female, Under 12 months, Healthy and if you wanted Asian or European. (We did not care if Asian or European so we did not put that down but I know they do not let you pick that any longer. It used to be a really long wait if you said European over Asian.)
People can judge all they want, but you should just research it all and do what is best for your family. The biggest issue is picking a good agency really.
Good luck to you.

[flowermom]

I would like to hear about agencies too.