Last month, I told you that officials in Minnesota had pulled the license of Reaching Arms International, an adoption agency that had been working in Russia and Guatemala, among other countries.

This morning, an online news site for Minneapolis that is part of the same media group as New York City's Village Voice and the Seattle Weekly has an extensive report on what went wrong at Reaching Arms.

The 4,390-word... more

As I have noted before, Russia has 86 governing subdivisions that are potential locations for an adoption. The 59 agencies that are now seeking accreditation and re-accreditation from the Ministry of Education each operate in only a handful of these regions. I've given you five tips on choosing a region once you have selected your agency.

But there's a lot more to learn about Russia's regions. Not only for the prospective parents now waiting... more

In the general scheme of things, and given the current state of the adoption process in Russia, this is only a minor annoyance. But I want to make sure those of you who are traveling or will be traveling soon are up to date.

This morning, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow posted a notice on its Web site that it will need more time to process adoption exit visas. As of June 18, the standard processing time will be at least two business days instead of one. Why?... more

I wrote a while back that Moscow's subway system is one of the top five things to see when you are visiting Russia's capital city on your adoption journey. But mass transit can be an odd experience for us car-crazy Americans. So I thought I'd take a minute today to look at how to ride the Moscow Metro and the city's trams.

First, some background. While the London Underground has far more kilometers of track (408 to Moscow's... more

This is a potentially plot-spoiling post if you have not gotten far in our group reading of Anna Karenina. If you are not yet up to Section Two, Chapter 10 please put down this post and catch up on other adoption blog reading.

For the rest of us, I want to talk about what happens in chapters 10 and 11 of Section Two, or perhaps more appropriately, what doesn't happen.

Section... more

I would love to say that, while I was waiting for my second adoption from Russia to finally happen, I waited with grace. I didn't. I ranted, I raved, I ripped out old bushes and an old patio.

Maybe that's what some of you are doing now as you wait for Moscow to get the accreditations moving again. This slowdown has seemed more nerve-wracking than the one I went through in 2005. But as I was working on another assignment last night, I was reminded of the calming, and inspirational power of an image. Of how looking at the right picture can mentally... more

When I was researching Saturday's post about The Frog Princess, I got a rude awakening to just how much things have changed in Russia since my first adoption: I checked up on the Hotel Vladivostok, only to discover that its top rooms now go for more than $300 a night!

In December 1999, my room at the Hotel Vladivostok was $33 a night. It was small, with space only for a bed, a portable crib and a small television whose sole English-language... more

If you read the mainstream press, you'd come away with the idea that Russia has shut its doors to adoption. As I've said before, it hasn't, and if you want proof you need look no further than the posts and blogs about the referrals, trips and court dates that prospective parents are getting right now. Yes, right now.

Before you jump to the conclusion that something nefarious is going on, remember this: While the accreditations of adoption agencies... more

I don’t know if your adoption agency has alerted you to this, but there was a very important Russian visitor in the United States two weeks ago: Alina Levitskaya.

Ms. Levitskaya's official title is Director of the Department of Youth Policy, Upbringing and Social Protection of Children of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Which means she is in the inner circle as the Ministry of Education rounds up Russian government input on the re-accreditation of foreign adoption agencies.

According to The National Council for Adoption, which... more

As a single, working mom of two, I have a long to-do list of things that don't get done.

But when I was working on a reorganization of the basement the other day, I came across the box of materials I had put aside for my younger son's life book. There was the journal I kept during my two trips to Sakhalin Island in 2005, and copies of all the e-mails I had sent or received while I was away. There were photos, but I am not the world's best with a camera and most of the time during my trips I was playing with my son, not taking his... more