One of many changes in plans to come

In January, I learned that my adoption file had been sent from the city of Almaty, where I expected to adopt from, to a new city on the other side of the country, Uralsk. The adoption program in Almaty had slowed dramatically, albeit for a positive reason: the local authorities are making more effort to promote domestic adoption for the children in their baby houses. This is a move I support, as it is important that countries make domestic adoption available and accessible within their own society before looking elsewhere. But the sudden change in policy, in the country’s largest city where many different countries have adoption programs, naturally led to a slowdown in matching prospective parents from overseas with children. Some reorganization in response led to my file being sent to Uralsk, a city where my agency already has a well-functioning adoption program. This is, in many ways, good news. Although it has resulted in an additional delay, I am reassured by my impression that the process tends to run smoother in this city than in Almaty. It is only one of many changes in plans that I am sure is yet to come. As of February, the estimate is that I will be traveling to Kazakhstan in May or June.

Uralsk has many positive attributes, but unfortunately, accessibility from Canada is not one of them. It is a long series of flights and layovers—from Ottawa to Frankfurt to Almaty in the east of Kazakhstan, then back three hours toward Europe—to get there. This flight plan totals some 35 hours of travel time, but with less than 17 hours of that actually in flight with the rest consisting of long layovers in Frankfurt and Almaty.