Background Information
First a little background about the process that led up to the trip. Tonya
and I decided to adopt a child from another country sometime in early 2002. We
began doing a lot of research, thinking and praying about the process and the
different countries around the world that were willing to open their doors to
international adoptions. It did not take us long to focus in on the Republic of
Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a former Soviet country located just south of Russia
and west of China (about two or three countries straight north of Afghanistan,
if that helps). We found several stories about the wonderful care and treatment
children in Kazakh orphanages receive and were pleased to learn that we would
only be required to make one trip to Kazakhstan to complete the adoption
(granted, it was a three to five week trip, but still only one trip was
necessary). The orphan children in Kazakhstan are generally healthier than those
in most other countries around the world and are often available for adoption
when they are between six months and one year old. Everything felt perfect so we
set our minds and hearts on Kazakhstan and away we went.
After deciding to adopt from Kazakhstan, we began to look into different
agencies that had adoption programs in Kazakhstan. Once again, it did not take
too long to find an agency that seemed like the perfect fit for us -
World Partners Adoption out
of Georgia. We contacted World Partners and got an information packet from them,
along with a list of about 75 families that had used World Partners to adopt
from Kazakhstan and were willing to be references. We contacted each family on
the reference list and received nothing but great responses from everyone who
had gone before us. We decided to go with World Partners and signed a contract
with them at the end of May 2002. On a scale of 1 to 10, World Partners rates a
20 in my book. Jim and Cindy Harding are the directors of the agency and were
great to work with. Our adoption coordinator was Mary Reilly – who was an
absolute blessing throughout the entire process. I'll talk a bit more about the
staff overseas later, but in short I cannot imagine working with a better group
of people! If (when) we adopt again, I have no doubt that we will be calling
World Partners to help us out.
