Adoption is a private journey that can sometimes find its way into public forums. I write often in this blog about my trips to Russia to adopt my two sons and their lives since they have come to live in America.

And just about every day of every week, I read what many of you have gone through and are going through to welcome children born in Russia into your homes. Through your writings, I travel to parts of Russia I have never seen and experience adoptions that went both more and less smoothly than my own. In reading the writings of those of you already home with your families, I've... more

I did a bunch of interviews yesterday to catch up on several issues surrounding Russian adoptions now. A point that one of them made has been bothering me, and I wanted to share it with you.

This individual was of the belief that the slowdown in adoptions caused by the new accreditation procedures has cost many children their chance to be adopted. "The children who lost their opportunity lost it forever," this person said.

Forever? No, I don’t think so. There are only a few times in life when I accept finality, and the current state... more

This morning, I took a look at toilet training in Russia's orphanages. Now I need to talk about what happens when there are problems with bathroom behavior, and most specifically about a problem called encopresis.

What's that? It is, in essence, what happens when constipation gets out of control. In slightly starker terms, stool gets so backed up in the large intestine that it begins to leak out into a child's underpants and clothing. The Cincinnati Children's... more

There was one part of Rose Alaimo's latest reports from Russia that I didn't share with you the other day: What she learned about toilet training in a Russian orphanage.

As those of you who have brought home toddlers already know, children are potty trained very early in Russian orphanages. Almost as soon as they can sit, they are made to sit on a potty after meals. Nature takes its course and the kids get into a bathroom routine fairly quickly. It is not... more

I've been reading a bit about families who have used baby sign language to communicate with the children they adopt from abroad, and I think it can be a useful tool to help you bridge the language gap. There was a story about one family who used it with the children that they adopted from Russia in a Michigan newspaper earlier this month.

Baby sign, as it is sometimes called, is about two decades old. The basic idea behind it is that learning... more

I'm sure all the parents who are already home from Russia celebrated the new accreditations just like the parents who are waiting. But if the agency you used was not among this first group to be accredited, ask yourself this question: Could your late post-placement report be holding things up?

For those of your now waiting to travel to Russia for an adoption, you should know that your paperwork obligations to the Russian government do not end when you leave Moscow... more

We spend a lot of time without shoes in my family. We have a "shoes off" policy year round when we enter the house, which cuts (but by no means eliminates) the amount of mud that gets tracked through.

But in summer, it's hard to keep the shoes on wherever we are, inside or out. And when I was looking at my little guy's toes the other day as he got ready to head outside, I was struck by how far he has come since coming home from Sakhalin Island in October 2005.

Then,... more

Well, there was absolutely no doubt what the top story was this week for this audience: Accreditations! Yes, Moscow finally delivered the new licenses for eight American agencies and one French agency, L'Agence Francaise d'Adoption. The new accreditations were apparently signed June 27, but only delivered to agencies on July 4. The American agencies are Adoption... more

Look at the image to the right of these words. It is something that many adoption agencies have not seen in a long, long time. It is a certificate of accreditation from the Russian government to operate as an adoption agency in Russia. And it is absolutely beautiful. OK, maybe not as beautiful as your children or the children who will be joining your family soon, but as stunning as official documents ever get. And I wish I could have published it to fit the full page.

This one belongs to International... more

Early this month, Rebecca at the Viet Nam Adoption Blog had a solid, sensible post on five basic steps to talk to your child about adoption. They are the framework for discussion in my house, too. But we've been having an interesting conversation recently that I'd like to share with you, in a somewhat paraphrased form.

My older son has known for a long time that I picked him, and we have a somewhat fanciful story about what it was about him that compelled... more