Forward March

March has flown by. Absolutely flown. I’ve been too busy for my own good, and over Easter weekend I jetted to Indianapolis for a quick visit with my family. I had a nice, relaxing time with them, although the colder weather was a shock since spring has been springing in Charleston for weeks now. As you can see, our azaleas are in full bloom!

One of the highlights of my trip home was seeing my great niece again – the adorable Carissa Nicole, who is almost one year old. It's hard to believe that our child will be close to the same age as my niece's child. Am I really a great aunt? I thought all great aunts were silver-haired, loved to quilt, drive Buicks and eat dinner at 4pm?

Here is little Carissa with her mom, my lovely niece, Sacha.

I’m a little late with this news, but the temporary suspension of the processing of Kaz dossiers by the DC consulate has been lifted!

Apparently, there is a new Ambassador who wanted to assess the existing process. I’ve read that every new case going through the DC consulate will still be under intense scrutiny for awhile, which will slow the processing pace. This prolongment is excruciating for those families caught up in it. It’s hard enough when everything runs like clockwork (not that ours has) and we feel so bad for those who are trudging through this bog.

But understandably, Kaz does not want to fall into the same traps that some other countries have fallen into. Not being regulated tightly enough can leave room for corruption. You’ve probably seen this kind of thing all over the news with Guatemala. It’s only a small percentage of cases, but it’s tragic how greed has had such a catastrophic effect.

Kaz adoption seems to be on the other side of the spectrum. This program is stringently managed and they are extremely protective of their children. Some might say they go overboard, but it takes a lot of diligence and weeding to protect the children and the integrity of all future adoptions. They are also a very proud people, and do not want to be known as a country who cannot take care of their own. Some Kazakhstanis think a child is better off in his or her native country, even if it means living in an orphanage. It's just a different mindset. So chances are that Kaz restrictions will continue to become tighter, and timelines longer, leaving behind even more children who will never grow up in a loving family.

For more about the current state of International Adoption, check out this article: www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1004119.html

And to help support the Kaz orphans left behind, please click on the button below to either donate items or purchase their new cookbook, Cooking For Kaz: Meals for Hope. It has over 200 pages with 298 recipes, pictures, poems and information on Kazakhstan. (I submitted a recipe for the best peanut butter fudge I've ever tasted!)