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From what I've heard and read everyone is hoping for this country to allow international adoptions again soon (maybe even next few months??).
We had wanted to adopt from Russia but it's very expensive - at the moment we are just "starting somewhere" and seeing what we can save and fund-raise (we could take out a loan but are hoping to avoid as much of debt as possible).
My question is that, in the past, was it more affordable to adopt from Kazakhstan rather than Russia? And I'm assuming that there's already going to be a "line" of families who've been waiting to adopt so that may also make the waiting time-frame longer, huh?
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karla-k
when we were researching in 2008, we found that Kaz was going to be just as expensive if not more so than Russia. The long incountry stay was too much for us, and we have other children and couldn't have left them for that long.
Mamsie,
An adoptive couple, which just adopted from Kaz - right before the program closed - told us the cost would be approx $50,000 with the agency they used (and with which they were very happy). We quickly ran some numbers and indeed it is easy to see that, between the agency fee and the costs in country, flights, etc., that's the amount one should plan to spend. The federal tax credit is still $13,700 (it is $13K + something, I think 13.7K is accurate); yet, an agency told us there is strong talk about reducing it, maybe to $5,000.
The long stay in Kaz would be very problematic for us, too.
We have been looking at Ethiopia: very different situation, rules, types of orphanage... Yet, it seems that there are some reputable agencies one could work with. Waiting times used to be fairly short and the trip used to be only one. Now they require two one-week trips (one for court date and one to pick up the child(ren)). And the program seems will suffer a slow down: they are investigating the system and are planning to process fewer applications for a while. Following the Yahoo groups, it seems that, at the end of the day, it is a good thing if they manage to establish a better system, to avoid any wrong-doing (I don't know if it is a general rule, but the most reputable agencies - according to our still incomplete research - seems to be those that have more rules - you can't choose gender for example - and longer waiting times). The cost might be some $20,000 less.
In sum, as we wait to see what happens to Kaz, and with awareness of the major cost involved and with much concern for the long stay in-country, we are investigating Ethiopia, which unfortunately also is in a volatile situation right now: we need to wait a bit and see. This time may be good to assess options and think of the sort of adoption we want to do, and at which financial and personal costs.
I hope this helps you guys, too :-)
Good luck!