Everyone who adopts must have one: the notorious homestudy. Some adoptive parents will tell you their social worker feels like a close friend. That's how we feel. Our social worker knows us well, having done numerous homestudies, updates, and postplacements, coupled with the fact his best friend for over twenty years is the father of a good friend of ours. It's one of those small town connections I guess.

Other adoptive parents report a colder experience. Common complaints include rudeness, lateness, and issuing incorrect reports. Not to mention the long wait for the actual report.

But the homestudy requirement is something no adoptive family can get around, so get used... more

I remember that when we were in the dreaded "waiting period" for our Kazakhstan adoption, one thing I did to pass the time was to follow the national headlines in Kazakhstan. I remember at that time there was a great deal of worry surrounding the presidential elections. Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev has been president in Kazakhstan for many years, and any challenge to him is met with hostility. Kazakh elections are democratic in theory only. In fact, Nazarbayev's daughter was the leader of an opposition party campaigning against her father. Pretty interesting stuff.

I wanted to share with you a few resources for researching current events in Kazakhstan.

Eurasianet... more

I find it very interesting that the majority of countries that participate in international adoption experience a greater demand for female adoptees than male. The obvious exception to this is China, where as a result of the one-child policy and other social factors, the overwhelming majority of children up for adoption are girls. But in virtually every other country, Kazakhstan included, there is a much greater demand for girls. Why is that?

Some adoption researchers point to the fact that in many adoptions, it is the mother who is doing the majority of the research and participation, and they feel more in touch with a female adoptee. Another factor is that most single program... more

As many of you are aware, Kazakhstan does not honor referrals. We nonetheless were referred a child prior to travel. We were actually shown pictures of seven different little boys, and our son's was the first. I knew the instant I saw him he was to be our son.

I hear many parents talk about the moment they first saw their child, and how they just "knew" that was to be their child. If you are travelling blind, you are absolutely relying on this intuition to tell you when you see the child that is meant to be yours. And that's... more

Recently our 23 month old son started stuttering. And not just getting hung up on a single letter. I mean words that he has had mastered for months have become foreign to him. It might take him 30 seconds to get out the word "hi."

Our daycare assured us this is something they see in many toddlers, but being the overprotective parent, I was not convinced. So I asked my good friend, who happens to also a psychologist who exclusively treats children. Her son went through the same thing, and according to her, there is no rhyme or reason to it except at some point during toddler development, the words they are hearing inside their little heads are moving faster than their mouths, so... more

I recently posted a Status Check on this blog on March 17. Over the weekend, I received a disturbing response to this post. A reader wrote that her dossier was now being submitted to the Kazakhstan embassy here in the U.S., and if she bribed the embassy worker $600, her dossier would be processed in two weeks. The agency went on to tell her that other families had done this and had in fact got their dossiers back in two weeks.

I completely feel for this poster. She mentions that ethically she knows this is wrong, but this is her AGENCY, whom she trusts, or did until now, that is... more

It's that time of year!!! You are looking at a professional garage sale junkie. It is a longstanding family tradition for us to hold a garage sale each spring. In our community, there is also a town-wide garage sale in April. This idea has quickly spread to surrounding communities, and there is more or less now a town-wide garage sale in this area everything weekend of April and May!

All of this talk of garage sales got me thinking about what I did with the proceeds of our last garage sale. We all know adoption isn't cheap. It takes a great deal... more

When we adopted our son in January 2005, he was eight months old. He responded at that time to Kazakh, the native language of Kazakhstan. Other than "a-dee-see-sah," which apparently means "come here" in Kazakh, our son doesn't recognize anything but English now. Obviously, he had no trouble getting use to English as his speaking language because he was so young. I would imagine that the language difference between parents and older children may take some getting used to.

Anyone who adopts from Kazakhstan might benefit from this simple dictionary... more

Today I am reading many message board posts from potential adoptive parents considering switching countries. The current dilemna is a large delay in the China program which is being experienced by all agencies as the CCAA (the Chinese governmental unit that controls adoptions) treats all agencies the same. Not long ago, the wait from your dossier being "logged in" over in China to your referral was about six months. Now, the wait has climbed to over ten months, and agencies are speculating the wait will grow as long as 12-18 months.... more

For some time now, I have had my eyes out for a children's book that is based on a Kazakhstan adoption. I have yet to find one. There are some really terrific children's books about Russian adoption, my favorite being When I Met You, by Adrienne Bashista, author of the Russia Adoption Blog.

Kazakhstan adoptions, however, are just a bit different than Russian adoptions,... more