KAZAKHSTAN PROGRAM UPDATES
Families Bringing
New Loved Ones
We currently have one family in the
country waiting to taking their child home, and two families who
are scheduled to return at the end of this month to bring their
children home. Less than a week ago a family brought their child
home from Kazakhstan. Congratulations to all of our newly
completed, and about to complete, families!
Domestic Adoption in Kazakhstan
and Its Effect on International Adoption: In 2006, interest
in domestic adoption began to increase among citizens in
Kazakhstan, and in 2007, the number of domestic adoptions there
has grown quickly. National pride and the natural desire to have
a family are high motivators.
According to Kazakhstan law, a
Kazakhstan citizen?s right to adopt a Kazakhstan child takes
precedence over that of a foreign family. Until the time that a
foreign family actually comes to Kazakhstan, meets their
referral, and petitions to adopt the child, any citizen of
Kazakhstan can come forward and inquire about the child, and
potentially interrupt the adoption process. Once a foreign
family has petitioned to adopt the child while in country, then
only a child?s biological family member can interrupt the
adoption process.
Citizens of Kazakhstan typically are
more interested in children without medical problems. Therefore
children whose medicals do have diagnoses are more often
available to international adoption families. The Ministry of
Education does not release information about prospective
adoptive children to our in-country staff, so they are unaware
of a child?s medical situation prior to a family?s travel to
meet the child. If a family does need to turn down a referral
for medical reasons, our staff will work with the Ministry of
Education officials to find another referral for the family
while they are in Kazakhstan. Whether this is successful or not
depends on timing: if there is a child available who both meets
the family?s request and is not already referred to another
family (from CHI or from another agency).
Our Kazakhstan team at Children?s
Hope - St. Louis and the coordinators in our Children?s Hope
branches nationally are happy to discuss the concerns of our
families at any time. We want everyone to be comfortable with
the program they have chosen to build their family. Please do
not hesitate to call or e-mail us.
Preparation: We suggest all
families research diagnoses that may be found on the medical
conclusions of internationally adopted children. An
international adoption medical specialist can point you in the
right direction. All families adopting in Kazakhstan need to be
open to children with ?minor, correctable medical needs.? You
will want to arrive in Kazakhstan armed with knowledge of what
to expect to see in your child?s medical conclusion, and how to
interpret it with the help of a medical doctor.
Winter holidays in Kazakhstan:
We currently have several families in Kazakhstan, meeting or
picking up their children. We are coming up quickly on the
following holidays that will cause Kazakhstan offices, US
Embassy, and/or both to be closed for periods of several days at
a time: Kazakhstan Independence Day (December 16), Christmas,
and New Year?s. The New Year holiday in Kazakhstan stretches
into the first two weeks of January. Because of these holidays,
January family travel will take place after January 14.
Time period between invitation
and travel: We know that our waiting families are anxious to
travel to Kazakhstan to meet their children, and please know we
are working with our staff to get you over there as soon as you
are invited. Recently families who have received invitations to
travel to Kazakhstan have had about ten days between the
invitation and the date they leave the U.S. This is a definitely
a case of ?wait, and hurry up?! We want families to know that
there may not be much time to reserve flights and obtain visas.
2007 Children's Hope International.
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