Which EE country for young marrieds, under 15K?

Think about Ukraine. You can go independent, it will cost less. You have one trip, but you do not get to pick your child before you travel. You have to go to NAC in Kiev to look at available children's information, then you travel to the orphanage to see the child. If you need more information, you can pm me Jane

Thanks! Before I even asked, that was where my heart was tugging. I just felt like it was the "obvious" answer and there was probably a better fit out there. I am still curious about the meeting process, so a PM is on the way. We really don't want to go only off a picture, whether we see it here or there.

By thte way, your time line is probably not realistic for EE countries at present, where waiting times vary but are generally increasing right now. You may be aware of this, but even before you submit your application to a country like Ukraine or Bulgaria, you will need to complete a home study and collect and authenticate various documents.

Max'sMom,Thanks for the follow-up! I know of the paperchase. :) We really feel most strongly about meeting the child before a commitment is given and are leaning strongly to Kazakhstan. The price difference is double, though! From what I hear, 8 months for a toddler to child is not difficult. Kaz is grouped with the Asian countries on this board, so I know that your statement didn't apply. I just wanted to be sure to say thanks and give an update.

LB, Best of luck! MM

I don't know of any country right now where you can meet the child without making some kind of commitment - financial at least in the form or an expensive trip. Adn usually the first portion of your fees. Russia you are not obligated to adopt the child until you sign the papers at the end of your first trip. And really you can change your mind before you travel back - no one can force you to attend the court hearing. Ukraine, you look at the books and decide which child to visit, I don't think they are very favorable to you declining a child you visit except for legit medical reasons. You might want to try a hosting program - where the child visits the US for a couple weeks - your child woudl be a minimum of 6 yo that way. When you say 15K - do you mean eveything - including hotels, airfare, USCIS, homestudy, etc.?

The 15K was a hopeful projection for full costs on an independent adoption. It is more important to us to meet the child first, though, so we are looking into Kazakhstan (which is double that!) We don't mind the "commitment" of money, time, etc. We are commited to adopting. Our concern was over commiting to a specific child through only pictures. Ukraine's policy of not giving another referral unless you objected for a health reason that was not disclosed really concerned us. We are very open and have no list of criteria the child must meet: 2-8 yo, either gender, medical and social issues fine if they are treatable. Especially in the case of a 6-8 yo, we want to make sure the child's hopes and talents and expectations are in line with us (people who read, and hike, and camp, but don't do team sports, who homeschool, who don't make gourmet meals, who hope to soon have land and farm animals that need taking care of, etc), that s/he wants to be adopted and taken to America, that s/he would be alright with our bio-dd, with our dog, with us, and so on. Just that right "click." The countries we were seeing were against this thought process, with a "you take what you get" kind of mentality. (Which I understand, as they are looking at it as you are lining the children up like dolls at a store, checking off the right criteria, de-humanizing the children, and trying to take away their best and brightest.) While we would love our child no matter what, and encourage talents and dreams even very different than our own, when a child has already had time to formulate his/her expectations of an adoptive family, and knowing there is going to be one who would "love" being in our specific family the most, we can't help but want to search him/her out. From what I gather, Kazakhstan does allow this "travelling blind" process and meeting with many children, without the pressure that Ukraine puts on photolistings and only one referral.

You can travel blind to Russia as well.

Karen,I'm not sure if you travelled blind or w/ a referral, so you might not be able to answer this. How does it work when you literally get there traveling blind? Everyone says Ukraine allows it, but what you really do there is get the photolisting referral once you are in-country, then travel to your child's orphanage. When you are choosing from children instead of the photos, how do they do it? Narrow it down by pictures first? Take you to the orphanage most likely to meet your needs? Photo refer one at a time until you say yes? We are especially concerned about the children, and do not want to hurt them, but at the same time are unclear how things go once you get there. Any help on the Russian front would be appreciated!

I traveled with an advance referral. But as I understand blind trips (which may vary some from region to region).. You go to the MOE with your desired charactersistics. They look at their database and present you with a child to go see. I think you can decline on the spot. Or you can go visit the child & assess the situation. If you decide you are not happy, you decline and go back to MOE for referral 2. Once you go onto to 2 - you cannot go back to child 1. etc. You really should quiz several agencies about this - because some agencies do lots of blind referrals and some don't. Also what about hosting - you have the child in your home for 2+ weeks with no obligation to adopt if you decide it is not a good match.

We traveled blind for our son's adoption from the Rostov region of Russia. We received information only about him, not about several children, so we didn't choose him from among a group of children or photolistings. They asked if we wanted to meet him -- we did and the rest is history. Another family traveling with a different agency at the same time, declined two referrals (one advance and received in country). After accepting their third they were told that if they had not accepted the third child they would have been required to travel to another region. I don't know anything about Kazakhstan or Ukraine, so I can't help you there.

Thanks for the info on Russia! I appreciate the details. If anyone out there could compare this process to Kazakhstan I would be much obliged. :)