The children are primarily of Kazakh descent and can be described as Euro-Asian.  FTC does not allow families to specify the ethnicity of the child they wish to adopt from Kazakhstan.  We ask that you are open to a child of any race or ethnicity.  Adoptive parents can request a specific age range and the gender of the child they wish to adopt.

Adoptive parents cannot adopt two children at the same time, unless they are biological siblings.  It is very rare to find siblings who need a family in Kazakhstan.

While the children are waiting to be adopted, they reside in an orphanage. The orphanages in Kazakhstan vary in quality and care-giver ratio.  You should expect to bring home a baby who is malnourished and developmentally delayed.  The babies are fed a diet that is quite high in starch and while this enables them to develop healthy looking fat deposits in their cheeks, for example, they can still be malnourished because of lack of nutrition. The babies are also typically short in stature relative to their weight and head size. This happens because a baby's body will essentially prioritize head and brain development over body height when nutrition is limited or suboptimal.  Fortunately, most babies recover very rapidly when they are provided correct nourishment by their adoptive parents.

Research shows that most babies are delayed in their development by one month for every three months they are in institutional care. So we would expect a nine-month old baby living in an orphanage to have the developmental skills of a six-month old.  Again, most children are able to catch up readily when they move to their adoptive homes.  Some children need some speech or physical therapy to catch up with their peers.

FTC recommends that you work with an international adoption pediatrician when you get a referral so that you can have assistance assessing the health status of the child you are matched with.