Geography of Kazakhstan

I pulled the following information from a pamphlet I received from the Kazakh Aul group. They are an association created to educate cultural needs of families with children from Kazakhstan. Tom, Aidan and I went to an event they had in NYC this past spring and met some other families there. Anyway, what I wanted to share is -where is Kazakhstan....

The Republic of Kazakhstan is a large country that encompasses three time zones and has a population of fifteen million people. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, and Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to the south.

The Kazakh people have a long and rich history of nomadic traditions over many centuries.... Despite the hardships engendered by Soviet domination, the strong Kazakh spirit persevered, and the young country actively supports the wonderful cultural traditions that are an inherent part of the Kazakh identity.

In addition, from another expat resource, one of the main riches of Kazakhstan is it's minerals. According to the world's leading scientists research shows that Kazakhstan occupies the sixth place in the world on it's stores of natural resources, which includes petroleum, gas, titanium, magnesium, tin, uranium, gold and other color metals.

Plant a Tree to offset Carbon Emissions

I want to encourage everyone to help participate in a simple task to benefit our environment. In an effort to balance the carbon footprint for our flight and trip to Kazakhstan I would like to suggest everyone plant a tree.

Now doesn't that sound simple? Well, the fact is the average mature tree sucks up 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year and releases enough oxygen to sustain 2 people.

Over the course of 50 years, a single tree can generate $31,250 of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycle $37,500 worth of water, and control $31,500 worth of soil erosion.

To learn more about how simple it is to plant a tree. Visit The National Arbor Day Foundation

It doesn't take much to do and think of the benefits. If you want to learn more about ways to help save the environment you can check out the alliance for climate protection.

Greetings

We created this site so we can share our experience throughout our adoption journey to Kazakhstan.

We are in the final stretch before hearing from our agency that our LOI (letter of invitation) is on its way. I am anxiously awaiting to hear what region has been chosen for us so I can feel more in control. As you know being a planner/producer and not being able to orchestrate all the details is just excruciating. With that said - I am truly looking forward to this trip and to bring home our new daughter.

Aidan

Our beautiful 5 year old daughter Aidan Hannah is very excited about being a big sister. We are having fun talking about it and all the fun things to come. Life will be a little different for all of us with two kids around.

The hardest part of all this planning is the decision to keep Aidan home and travel with out her. We have discussed eighteen different versions of how to go and bring her and keep her home as well as one of us making it two trips and the other staying the duration - I will not bore you with the list but trust me they all work and they are all complicated puzzle pieces. We will not know until we (Tom and I) are there what the duration of the trip will look like. So continue to follow along and see what happens.