Meet the Stices: Story of two Kazakh girls adopted by American couple becomes a film

"The film was made as part of a project with the U.S. General Consulate in Almaty. We were looking for a story for a new film when we were told about Kay Stice who was teaching at Nazarbayev University. Kay came to Astana to teach here and brought along his wife Ramona and two daughters who were actually adopted in Taraz in the early 2000s. I really loved the story because you can rarely see adopted children from Kazakhstan coming back from the U.S. and living here. I decided to make a short film about this family," Beisekeyev told Kazinform correspondent.

According to Beisekeyev, the family moved to Kazakhstan two years ago. "The girls go to an international school in Astana. I began working on my film last fall. But I've filmed their tour around EXPO pavilions just recently," the director added.



According to Ramona Stice, they have a very international family, they have seven (!) children. Their two oldest sons live in Hong Kong with their children. They also have a daughter-in-law from New Zealand. Their oldest daughter just moved home with her family from Korea. The family speaks about 9-10 languages.

In the film she says that in 1970s Kay was a volunteer. They moved to Hong Kong and traveled all over Asia and they loved it.

"While we were in Hong Kong we adopted a little girl who was four and a half from China. The first four children are our biological children. The fifth child - our daughter is Chinese. Taraz and Kamila are Kazakh adopted from Taraz, Kazakhstan," Mrs. Stice adds.

Kay admits that they decided to adopt from Kazakhstan because of strong family traditions, strong moral characters here. That is how Taraz and Kamila joined the big Stice family. Taraz was named after the city where the girls were adopted and Kamila, which means ‘to become perfect', was the perfect name for their second Kazakh daughter.



"Since we adopted them when they were young, they didn't have real memories of Kazakhstan. And we wanted them to grow up knowing about their own country. So, actually, for quite a number of years, I've looked for opportunities to come here and work. When I heard about the opportunity to teach at Nazarbayev University, I called Ramona... and she said ‘yes'. So, we really made the decision in five minutes," Kay reveals the main reason to move to Astana.

"They are Kazakhs. So if you are Kazakh, you need to know about Kazakhstan. We can read about Kazakhstan, we can watch things, but to be here - we've always thought that was important," says Kay, adding that they wanted to give the girls the opportunity to explore their native country.



As for girls, the move to Kazakhstan was exciting and bittersweet at the same time, they were leaving their friends, their house. But when they came to Kazakhstan they realized it was a great opportunity to meet new friends, to learn new languages and grow personally.



Taraz says: "The experience here in Kazakhstan has been unbelievable. It's a fine experience, I recommend it to everyone. It's fun because here the culture is cool. I've learnt so many new things... like having beshparmak, eating horse, celebrating Nauryz".

According to Kay, people here like the fact that the family adopted the girls and then came back to Kazakhstan.

The girls are learning Kazakh and Russian at school and want to have an American-Kazakh style wedding someday.

Photos and video by Kanat Beisekeyev