Want something fun to do this morning if your agency is among the 46 that have not yet gotten accreditation to handle adoptions in Russia? Call Martin Renkiewicz and ask him why his agency is holding things up. No, this is not an overseas call. Mr. Renkiewicz's agency is right down in Washington, D.C.

Yes, you read that right. It looks as if the fault for the slow pace of accreditations lies not with Moscow, or with late post-placement reports, but with an obscure American bureaucracy that goes by the name of the U.S.... more

So, as I told you in part one of this post, the U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol has stopped processing background checks on U.S. adoption agencies. Russia's Ministry of Justice needs this information to complete the accreditation of these agencies, so that they, in turn may complete the adoption of thousands of children now in Russian orphanages.

Now what?

One agency awaiting re-accreditation told me that the MoJ indicated that it would allow agencies to... more

Early this summer, I took a look at hosting programs. They bring older Russian orphans to the United States for a vacation that, with luck, leads to adoption by the hosting family. Many of the programs have been on hiatus as adoption agencies tried to decipher whether hosting and adoption can co-exist under the new accreditation rules.

At the time of that post, I was alerted that there was one program I missed, the Russian Orphan Lighthouse Project.... more

A while back, I asked those of you who are blogging about your adoptions in Russia if I could share your writing with the readers of this blog. Many of you responded in the affirmative, so here is what is going on on the Russia family blogroll now.

I'm going to start with the really good news. Almost two years after Zack and Laura at "The Winding Road to Chelyabinsk" first met their son Dimitry they have finally gotten a court date to bring him home!... more

Sometimes, the ins and outs of adopting from Russia just make my head hurt. Like today.

For the last two weeks, I have been trying to chase down a rumor that a U.S. government agency, not late post-placement reports, was holding up the re-accreditation process. I finally got confirmation today, after many rounds of phone calls and e-mails, that it was, but it is no longer.

Here's what happened. As part of the re-accreditation process, an obscure American bureaucracy that goes... more

Today's high in Novosibirsk was 47° Fahrenheit, with an overnight low of 36°. Pretty balmy by Siberian standards, especially when you consider that, in January, Novosibirsk's average high is 9° and its low is -1°.

Why the weather report? Well as it happens, some prospective adoptive parents are just back from a long-awaited trip one to Novosibirsk, and one of them has done something really cool about Russian winter weather.

Steve and his wife Stefanie, like many of you, live year-round in a city that doesn't get harsh winters. But they are adopting from a region... more

The other day I looked at how some of the subtle differences in apostilles--the official seal that certifies your adoption paperwork as authentic--can trip up your adoption in Russia. Now I want to look at some ways to avoid having trouble in the first place.

None of these steps is 100% certain--nothing in an adoption in Russia ever is. But with a bit of common sense and vigilance, I think you can improve your chances of a smooth adoption journey. I should say at the outset though that a good apostille means... more

Early on in my tenure at this blog, I looked at one of the aspects to the documentation you need to assemble for a Russian adoption: the apostille. Now, I'd like to talk about what happens when good apostilles go bad. Or, at least, when a judge in Russia thinks that they did.

The modern-day apostille was created in 1961 by an international agreement on how documents should be legalized for use between countries. The idea was to find some common standards and formats by which countries could recognize... more

There might not be a picture frame big enough for the Russian Ministry of Education's decree No. 253: That piece of paper, dated September 12 and posted to the ministry's Web site today, makes Small World Adoption Foundation of Missouri the 13th U.S. adoption agency to be re-accredited to operate in Russia.

Brenda Henn, Small World's director of operations, sounded ecstatic when I got her on the phone a few minutes ago. "I might be headed out to buy champagne this... more

There have been so many gains in the world of adopting from Russia lately--the 12 agencies accredited, the promise of more to come soon--so many gains that loss seems almost unthinkable. But loss is what I have to write about now.

This week, one of the brightest voices in the Russian adoption blog world lost her referral. This wasn't an abstract, paper loss: Suz--you may know her by her blog title, "Russian Adoption Dva"--had been to Russia twice to be with this little girl. She... more