Why Kazakhstan?

When people learn about my adoption plans, the most common first question is: Why Kazakhstan?

This question can be answered on a number of levels, both practical and personal. Practically speaking, the choices surrounding adoption are far more limited than most people realize. Domestic public adoption in Canada generally involves older children, often with special needs or circumstances. The adoption practitioners who place these children are often looking for particular types of families who are well suited to the children's situations; they may need to be married, experienced with special needs, or of a particular ethnic group. In domestic private adoption, the number of 'waiting parents' far exceeds the number of children available for adoption; these are usually 'open' adoptions, and the birth mother/parents choose the adoptive parents they desire based on a dossier of information about their family.

Internationally, there are many orphans in the world in need of love and support, but this is a complex situation. Firstly, many orphans are, of course, cared for by extended family. Those who are not may be placed in orphanages, 'baby houses,' or foster homes. Some will have family who continue to visit them, and therefore are not considered available for adoption. Most would agree that those remaining would be better off with permanent families--parents who adopt them either within their country of origin (generally seen as preferable) or transnationally.

However, most of these children will not be available for a Canadian, single woman to adopt. Firstly, their home country must have a transnational adoption program; many nations do not. Secondly, they must have an adoption agreement with a particular province within Canada, and there must be at least one adoption agency working in that province that is licensed to work in that country. Even then, country programs are often closed or temporarily suspended for a variety of reasons, ranging from political unrest to bureaucratic or ethical concerns about the way that particular program is managed. Each country's government then imposes its own restrictions on the types of prospective parents they will accept. Different countries limit eligibility according to a variety of parental criteria, for example, specifiying limitations based on age range, ethnicity, marital status, years of marriage, number of past divorces, health status, body weight, income, number of children already in the family, etc. Beyond this, wait times for transnational adoption are becoming increasingly long, and agencies restrict the number of new applicants they will accept at any given time depending on these wait times. For some countries such as China, wait times may be as much as 5 years.

Most people, therefore, find that there are only a handful of country programs available to them--even fewer if they are older or single. At this point, the prospective parent(s) may take a number of factors into consideration in choosing a program from among the few. What are the wait times? How smoothly is that program running? How old are the available children? What ethnicity will my child be if I adopt from that country, and are there members of that ethnic group in my community so that my child will not feel overly 'different'? Do I have any special connection to that country? What are the travel and facilitation costs for that country? How long is the required in-country stay? How well are the children cared for in the orphanage? How do I feel about the idea of visiting that country, and perhaps going back with my child in the future? And so forth.

So, why Kazakhstan? It was a mix of many of the above issues that led me there. Kazakhstan accepts single women applicants, and the program has been running fairly efficiently relative to others. A well-established adoption agency in my province is licensed and actively working there. As a Central Asian, post-Soviet country, it connects on some level with my own history: My paternal family came from a Soviet republic (Ukraine) and I have spent years of my life living, travelling and conducting research in Asia (albeit a different part of Asia). I live in a neighbourhood and social community where many families are of mixed white and Asian ethnicity, so in this sense my family will not be unusual (regardless of whether my child is of Kazakh or Russian heritage). And Kazakhstan is well known for excellent care in their baby houses, which are run very much like Canadian daycares, with high caregiver to child ratios and a stimulating and caring environment.

Kazakhstan's adoption program comes with its fair share of challenges, as well. Chief among these is the very long in-country adoption process, usually requiring two separate trips of a month each. Some of this is because of the bureaucratic and legal steps involved, and some is because they impose a 14 day 'bonding period' in which they, quite reasonably, ask prospective parents to bond with their child during daily visits to ensure that they are comfortable with the adoption before proceeding. It is a challenging process, but one that has been very rewarding for the families who have gone before me.