My agency coordinator let me know that my dossier is being transferred from the Astana/Akmola region to the Karaganda region because 1) there is some sort of problem in Akmola region that has halted adoptions there indefinitely, and 2) because there are young children available in the Karaganda region. They could not find any more available young ones in Astana after my hoped-for 2-1/2 year old was adopted by a local family. I feel sad at losing the 5 year old too, but happy that things will start to move again.

I've decided to include a map of the country so you can see the places I'm talking about. Remember, Kazakhstan is half the size of the continental United States. It is the 6th largest country in the world, though it only has 15 million people.