Announcement: Kazakhstan adoptions through Carolina Hope
Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency now has a Kazakhstan adoption program. Read more about it on our Kazakhstan page.
Here’s a little information about the children in need of adoption from Kazakhstan:
Kazakhstani children in need of families are in that situation for many of the same reasons children around the world need to be adopted: birthparent relinquishment, termination of parental rights, and abandonment.
Most Kazakhstani children in need of adoption are over the age of one. A newborn released for adoption will remain in a maternity hospital for the first 3 months of his life. After that, he must go through the process below, which applies to all Kazakhstani orphans. At the time of adoption, infants are at least 9 months old, usually older.
The children are from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. While most are Kazakh, the population of orphaned children reflects the diverse ethnicity of the country itself. Children placed for adoption may be Eurasian, Asian, or Caucasian. Children are generally in better health than is the case in many countries. Incidence of in-utero alcohol exposure is lower than in Russia, and there is a good caretaker-to-child ratio in many orphanages. Nevertheless, as is the case in all adoptions, there are medical risks that cannot be perfectly controlled for or anticipated.
Photograph of two Kazakhstani children
It is not common for siblings to be adopted together.
The possibility of developmental delays because of time in the orphanages is strong. In fact, a family is not permitted to request a “healthy child,” because the Kazakhstan adoption authorities do not classify any of the children being placed for international adoption as “healthy.” In addition, institutionalized children who are in the best health are adopted by local families, whose requests are given first priority. Waiting lists are long for local families wishing to adopt healthy children.
(Excerpted from our Kazakhstan Adoption page.)
:: posted by josh ::