Why Kazakhstan?

I must admit that when I started this journey, I had no idea just how much there was to learn. I started with first researching countries and finding out what their eligibility requirements were for adoptive parents, with being a single, I was immediately disqualified from many countries. Did you know that many countries (not all) will not allow singles, those who have been on depression medications, obesity, 2+ divorces, a DUI ??? Crazy hu! Anyhow, once I narrowed my list of countries down to a handful of favorites, I started to research the adoption systems in each country, the child to caregiver ratios, programs, costs, time in-country, cultures, need, the choices open to adoptive parents (sex/age), etc. and my heart lead me to Kaz. I love their adoption program! When adopting a child from Kazakhstan, you are allowed to choose both the age and the sex of the child that best fits your family, but what I liked most about their program is that it is 100% geared to be in the best interest of the child! In Kaz, a child must be on the national registry for 6 months as an orphan before being eligible for adoption, thus all children open to adoption are at least 6+ months old at the time of the bonding period. The other thing that I love about the Kazakhstan program is that they require all prospective adoptive parents to spend at least 2 consecutive weeks bonding with their child at the orphanage in Kaz before moving forward on the actual adoption. This allows the child time to get to know their parents before making that transition to their new forever family. I love this! How scary it must be for that child to leave all that they know and be placed with a new family. My hope is to adopt an infant / toddler girl and I am super hopeful that she will be home by Christmas, at least this is my dream!