Program Updates

December 7, 2007

This week we had two families complete their court dates to finalize their Kazakhstan adoption. Congratulations to these new forever families! Other families are in the process of bringing their children home right now, or are making plans to return to Kazakhstan to pick up their children.  

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.

 

November 15, 2007

Growing Program Brings Kids Into Homes

Children’s Hope Kazakhstan Program continues to draw interest from prospective families, and we are receiving many applications. We welcome our new families into the program and wish them the best as they begin their adoption journeys!

We have two families in Kazakhstan currently bonding with their children on their first trip. Three families just returned home from their bonding period and they look forward to returning to complete their adoptions on their second trip to the country. There are just over 220 families in the process of adopting from Kazakhstan.

 

October 15, 2007

Families Set to Travel to Bond With Their Children

Children’s Hope has 220 families currently in the Kazakhstan program. This month, two families will have court appearances in Kazakhstan, with seven families traveling for their first bonding trip. We expect to receive travel dates for at least one more family this month.

News about the regions:

Almaty City continues to process adoptions differently than other regions by currently requiring three separate trips. Three Children’s Hope families traveled to this region for their first trip this month.

Karaganda region is temporarily closed to US families seeking to adopt. Although Children’s Hope does not have any outstanding post adoption reports for our families, many agencies do. It is our hope that these completed families will submit their post adoption reports and this region will resume adoptions to the US.

Other regions continue to proceed with adoptions and families will continue to be invited for their travel to bond with their children and finalize their Kazakhstan adoptions.

If you should have any questions – please contact the Kazakhstan team.

 

September 15, 2007

Trips for Bonding and Adoption Finalization in Kazakhstan

Children’s Hope has 196 families in the Kazakhstan Program. Nine families completed their adoption paperwork in August; three, so far in September. This month we have had one court appearance in Kazakhstan and we have one family traveling for their first bonding trip. We should receive the travel dates for at least two more families this month.

News about the regions:

The region of Almaty City consists of three orphanages, all located within the city. It is a region of its own and operates differently than any other region. As many of you know, this region was closed to all agencies for almost 1 1/2 years. This May, the region re-opened and began inviting families, with two Children's Hope families traveling to the region in recent months. Again, this region's process, currently requiring 3 trips, differs from other Kazakhstan regions:

Trip 1 (2 weeks) both parents are required to travel for bonding period.

There may be 2-5 weeks between Trips 1 & 2.

Trip 2 (2 days) both parents are required to travel for the court hearing only.

There may be 2-3 weeks between Trips 2 & 3.

Trip 3 (4 days) only one parent needs to travel to personally receive all documents, go through the medical evaluation for the child and complete their US Embassy interview.

Children's Hope is requesting the Ministry of Education to not send our dossiers to this region. If any family prefers this region, please contact your adoption consultant. Once the Almaty City officials get in a groove – they may alter this process to be more like that of other regions…

Other regions still operate the same way! Families travel in two trips:

Trip 1 (3-4 weeks) both parents must travel for bonding period and court hearing.

There are approximately 4 weeks between Trips 1 & 2.

Trip 2 (2-4 days) only one parent needs to travel to personally receive all documents, go through the medical evaluation for the child and complete their US Embassy interview.

Learn more about adopting from Kazakhstan on Children's Hope Kazakhstan Adoption page.

 

August 15, 2007

An adoption from Kazakhstan can either be a one or two trip process. Under Republic of Kazakhstan law, parents are required to spend around two weeks bonding with their child prior to adoption. There is then about a month between this bonding time and the actual completion of the adoption.

From our experience, for families who break the process up into two trips, the first trip will be 3-to-4 weeks (depending on the region). We have several families who were able to complete their first trip in 3 weeks, but then we also had families who had to stay up to four weeks.

The second trip normally takes place around a month after the first trip. Only one parent is required for the second trip but of course both parents are welcome. This is a short stay of only 2-3 days in country before flying back home.

Some families have opted to stay in Kazakhstan for the entire time. If a family decides on this one trip approach, they need to count on 45-60 days in country.

Families in the process: 167 

Families applied in June: 17

Dossier families: 42

Dossiers received in June: 8

Families waiting for their trips: 4

June 20, 2007

From June 1st to the middle of July, Children’s Hope has completed adoptions from Kazakhstan for three families. One additional family is now traveling within Kazakhstan bonding with their new son. This traveling family’s court date is at the beginning of August. Congratulations to all of these families newly united!

 

May 31, 2007

Families Traveling

Five families have returned home with their children (all five families adopted girls), after completing their Kazakhstan adoptions this past week. Three additional families are currently in country, going through their bonding period with their children and waiting for their court hearing on their second trip. Two more families will be traveling the second week in June to meet their children for the first time! Congratulations to all of these united families! We hope to announce more travel dates for families adopting internationally soon.

 

May 09, 2007

Girls Bring Smiles to Five New Mothers

This Mother’s Day, five new moms are showing off their new daughters they adopted from Kazakhstan this year. Although not old enough to make mom breakfast or buy her flowers, these little ones are making the day special.

There are three more families preparing to travel this month and 24 families who have submitted their dossier and so now are waiting on their travel date. As of the end of April, 75 new applicants have been added to the Kazakhstan adoption program.

 

April 13, 2007

Region Once Closed in Kazakhstan, Now Open

The Kazakhstan Ministry of Education along with the Department of Education of Almaty City have decided that the region will be re-opened to international adoption. For over a year, the Almaty region has been closed to Americans adopting from Kazakhstan. Some European agencies were able to proceed with adoptions in that region. Officials closed the region because of too many tardy post-placement reports from American agencies.

Since Children’s Hope was keeping post-placement dates as required, we are expecting to have more families receiving travel dates for that region.

Currently, in two other regions of Kazakhstan, there are four families in the country working on different stages of their Kazakhstan adoption.
 

March 15, 2007

The Kazakhstan program is growing! At this time we have over 100 families at different stages of the process. There are families, just applied, who are working on their dossier and families with completed dossiers now waiting for travel approval. In the last two months, we have received 11 dossiers and will continue to receive more this year. Our biggest blessing—this year we were able to find four homes for four waiting children – older children and children with special medical needs. We are very excited to see the interest in Kazakhstan adoptions on the rise.

Update on Almaty City: Almaty City has been closed for over a year due to the Department of Education reevaluation of the adoption process and their enhanced rules regarding post adoption reports. Now the city is in the process of being reopened for international adoption. We look forward to our first family traveling there soon!

If you should have any questions about Kazakhstan Program – feel free to contact Jeff Morris at (314) 812-1769 or Anna Rister at (314) 812-1890.

 

February 14, 2007

One Children’s Hope International family will be traveling to Kazakhstan this Valentine’s weekend amid the romantic festivities of concerts and shows customary for the holiday. Two additional families are preparing to travel in the next few weeks. Twelve dossiers have been submitted to adoption officials and we expect these families to travel to Kazakhstan to begin their Kazakhstan adoption in the next several months!

The Almaty region, one of our largest regions in country, is currently reviewing their child adoption process and the paperwork completed in December 2006. Although this means families will not be traveling in this region until March, we are very excited about the region’s intention for higher regulations in adoption law and their preparedness to accredit qualified adoption agencies within the next two years!

 

January 23, 2007

There are four families in country this January. One family is finalizing their Kazakhstan adoption of an 8-month-old boy; the other family, a 7-month-old boy. The other two families are visiting with their children during their first trip to adopt from Kazakhstan.

 

December 29, 2006

Requirements May Alter: Our chief representative spoke to the Ministry of Education mid-December regarding requirements for families, including medical and police backgrounds. Kazakhstan adoption officials have become more open-minded than previously and are more lenient in relation to some other countries. Kazakhstan does now require both parents to be U.S. citizens.

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