How did I miss this one?

In mid-July, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ran a story about Russia's efforts to find more families interested in domestic adoption. It is an eye-opener, both for what it reveals about Russian attitudes toward adoption and for how the domestic adoption process differs from inter-country adoption. And somehow, it didn't make it onto my radar screen until this morning.

I was only on my first cup of coffee when I clicked on the... more

Why does pre-natal exposure to alcohol seem to weigh more heavily on some of the children we have adopted from Russia than others? A new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison may hold the key.

According to findings published Friday in Biological Psychiatry, the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, children who carry a certain gene variant may be more likely than others to suffer the ill effects... 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

No word yet on the composition of the new Russian government, but President Vladimir Putin, speaking at an economic forum in Sochi, said it would be announced "soon". The only one who may definitely be out is Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who reportedly handed in his resignation on Tuesday because he is the son-in-law of the new prime minister, Viktor Zubkov. Speaking of Zubkov, hegave ministers in the old cabinet... more

She was born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729. She died Yekaterina II Velikaya in 1796. And in between, she left a great impression on the world as empress of Russia.

Catherine the Great, as she has come to be known to the world's English speakers, has been the subject of many books--nearly 5,000, according to Amazon.com. And now she has a role in a newly published history book, Jay Winik's "The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800."

Catherine didn't, at her birth, seem destined for greatness. Her father... 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's an interesting piece in today's New York Times about the Solovetsky Islands, an area rich in Russian religious and political history.

The six islands, which are also known as Soloviki, are part of Arkhangelsk oblast, which I wrote about a few weeks back.

Six hundred years ago, the islands became the home... more

Since former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and his entire government resigned last week, there's been a lot of buzz on Russian adoption chat boards and blogs about what exactly is going on over there.

Some of the confusion is quite understandable. We in America are used to have a White House official or cabinet member resign from time to time. But we only have a complete housecleaning when a new presidential term begins. Having an entire cabinet resign mid-stream isn't quite such a foreign idea... more

The Blacksmith Institute has released a new report on the world's most polluted places and there are, unfortunately, a lot of sites in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union on the list.

That's the bad news. The good news is that seven of the eight pollution clean-up success stories that Blacksmith cites are also in Russia.

Pollution takes a huge toll on the world's children, causing high rates of birth defects and infant mortality, high rates of asthma, cancer and other diseases, impairing brain... more

I suppose we were just about due for one of those conversation-in-a-car conversations.

We were riding north, to check out a farm market that I had heard carried locally raised produce, poultry and pork. Since I read Barbarba Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" at the start of the summer, we've been moving steadily toward a more "locavore" diet. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it means eating food raised or produced within 100 miles of where you live. The thinking goes that it makes... more