When I started writing for Adoption.com last January, one of the first blogs about Russian adoption that I was lucky enough to read was "Three Sons And A Princess". It was the tale of a military family with three boys who were trying to adopt a little girl, affectionately dubbed the "Pineapple Princess".

Jennefer, or Jeneflower as she sometimes styles herself, is the mom of the clan and its chief memory officer. Her writing captured the ups and downs of her family's adoption journey and featured so many smart tips about surviving... more

Tuesday, December 4 was Gotcha Day for Chris, Danica and their new twin daughters, adopted in Perm. It was a long time between trip one and trip two, but the girls were home in time to celebrate Christmas. As new parents, Chris and Danica may not have much free time to blog about their adoption journey any more, but you can read all about how they got to their happy conclusion here. Congratulations!

One funny note about how small the world of Russian adoptions can... more

I got a lovely surprise in the mail over the weekend. No, not the six new cookbooks I've ordered (the "Jessica's Biscuit" catalog was too compelling). It was my first copy of Russian Life, a bi-monthly gem of a magazine about all things Russian.

Maybe you know all about Russian Life; after all it's only been around for 50 years. But maybe you remember what it used to be--a bit too much one-sided cheering--and hadn’t thought to pick up a copy lately. If that's your only memory, or if you've never seen the magazine, you... more

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 found the mother lode of information on Russia last night.

It's called "Sher's Russian Index", and it is a portal to all things Russian--art, culture, sports, science, language and much, much more. Well, there's not a section on adoption, but I can forgive its creator that because of all the other material that's here.

A word on the site's creator. He is one Benjamin Sher, and after a bit of sleuthing, I learned that he is a Russian translator by profession. His main Web site contains... more

I've been searching for some time for bloggers writing from Russia. Not the politics and economics wonks (not that there's anything wrong with that), but ordinary, everyday people. The informed "everyman" that every journalist yearns to find when sent out on the street to do what would otherwise be a pedestrian story. Somebody who could tell us all what life is like every day for people in Russia. I've recently found two of them and I'd like to tell you about them.

You hopefully got to read a bit of "snowsquare"... more

Below are some exciting events going on in the Russian adoption bloggy world this week.

Sveta will be coming home with to Texas with her forever family.

Lauren & Marco are returning from their referral trip. It sounds like they had a wonderful time with their little girl.

We’re all crossing our fingers for Jennefer this week, hoping that her elusive court date will be scheduled.... more

If you haven't had a chance to check out this blog yet, I highly recommend The Accidental Russophile for anyone who has yet to travel to Russia (or who's been there and wants to read more).

It's the blog of Wally Shedd, an American engineer who has professional and personal ties to Russia. He apparently does contract work there quite often and he is engaged (perhaps married, at this point) to a Russian woman.

The blog is immense, as he's quite a prolific writer and he updates it often. I'll give you some highlights as I see them.

First is this post on food. In his January... more

Yesterday I stumbled upon a fascinating website called Moscow Life. It's a subset of the Friends and Partners website, which I'll have to talk about another day, but which is a collection of sites devoted to Russian-American cross-cultural exploration! I'm really excited about it.

Anyway, back to Moscow Life. This site features nine years (1995... more

Yesterday I posted about my brainstorm to create a newsletter chock-full of fun cultural things for kids who were adopted from Eastern Europe. I still think it’s a great idea and I’m definitely going to work on it.

The thing is, after 12:30 this afternoon it’s summertime, dear readers, and although Big J has some camps and Little J is going to go to pre-k part time, I’m going to have my kids around me a lot more than during the school year and that’s a great thing! So I need to put... more