Part of me feels guilty for even writing about this process – since we personally did not do all that well with this! But I know – it is an IMPORTANT step and I hope anyone considering adopting from Kazakhstan does their research. Please remember in today’s day and age – you do not have to adopt from an agency that is within your state – you can email, fax and mail so much – so do not limit yourself to your state in your search. We worked with out of state agencies and that portion was NEVER an issue.

As with any business, you have people who are ethical and those who are not. And although some agencies are “non-profit” they still have a “business” to run – and as much as they’d like to argue that point – it is a fact – to make anything “work” – it has to have a certain level of “business” sense.

The most spoke of agencies on the groups have been:

World Partners
Little Miracles
Kidsfirst


It doesn’t mean those are the ONLY agencies to adopt from. Many agencies fit one family better than others. I know of many single household families who struggle with World Partners – while I read about many adopting through Little Miracles. Bottom line – do some research – by asking people on the group to email you privately about X agency that you are considering. By calling and receiving information from at least 3 different agencies – you’ll be better off in selecting an agency that will work for you.

One thing I learned while working briefly for an agency – some agencies “network” through another agency – so the Kazakhstan sides sees the agency your agency networked through – while you work with the placement agency on t his side. I’m not saying this is bad or good – just another question to find out. Especially with a country that requires accreditation – I would think you’d want to work directly with the agency that has the accreditation in that country.

Some links/places to research agencies:

http://www.adoptachild.org/ICAR/Adoption-Registry.aspx - you can then search by country.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/

http://www.frua.org/considering/consider_adopt.shtml - you can post on the chat section or search for an agency name

A group format: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Adoption_Agency_Research/

If you’d like to “interview” an agency – you may want to ask the same type of questions to see what answers you get. A huge struggle with our older son’s adoption was the ever changing ‘cost’ to adopt – it aggravated my husband to the point that he would not work with another agency that didn’t provide a rough draft of the cost upfront and where those funds that we paid went to.

http://kazakhadoptivefamilies.com/questions.html - a GREAT resource site in general for families adopting from Kazakhstan – but a MUST have page when interviewing potential agencies. At the bottom of this page – Susan even has a link to print the page without any graphics or background.

Just remember – you are hiring the agency – they work for YOU. Please don’t feel like you have to accept anything but exceptional work in all areas of your adoption journey. I hope you find an agency that you can share your child’s milestone with 5, 10 years from now – because – after it is ALL said and done – that is what remains in our hearts.