Gifts, gifts and more gifts

One of the things you read about prior to travelling to Kazakhstan and your adoption agency warns you about is that you need to bring gifts for a whole list of people including the caregivers at the baby house and various officials involved in facilitating the adoption. We figured we’d planned ahead and had gifts for a whopping 10 people.

Much to our surprise when we got here and sat down and figured it out we needed more like 20. The kink in our plans was that there are two women on shift at a time in the baby room and a total of 10 on rotation. So there was our extra 10 people. The entire list was long a varied. If we had it to do again I think we’d hit Walmart and Target a bit harder and have planned for more people.

Luckily the guideline is $10 to $20 per gift with a few in the $30 to $50 category for some of the more important officials. So with some targeted shopping over here we were able to fill our our selection. We’ve heard rumor of some agencies claiming you need to be in the $100+ category or supplement with cash but from what we can tell that is more than is required.

Given how hard everyone works to makes sure the adoption goes smoothly a gift is a nice way to let them know you appreciate their efforts!