I had really thought that the dark days of Russian adoptions were behind us. Yes, I know, this whole NGO and re-accreditation process has taken way, way, way too long. But I believed that, as it progressed, certain practices of the past had been weeded out. And then I read this thread on the Russia Adoption forum.

Folks, nobody should be bringing this much cash to Russia for an adoption anymore.

I know, as well as anybody, that a Russian adoption is not inexpensive. It was one of the first issues that I addressed when I started writing for this blog. But there is a right time and place and way to pay these fees, and it is not in Russia in thousands of dollars in cash. As I have said before, a good agency bills you in stages, with the bulk of the fees at the end. What I probably should have been clearer about in that post was that payment should be made almost entirely in the United States.

There are various theories on the boards about why people are being asked to pay this way, from the nefarious (bribery) to the practical (Russian adoption workers would lose most of their meager income to taxes if they were paid by check). But even if I accept the latter, I don't want to be the Brink's truck--and a highly visible one at that.

I checked the records of my second adoption yesterday, and I brought $1,500 with me on my first trip to Sakhalin Island in May 2005. I needed to cover three hotel nights in Sakhalin and one in Moscow, neither of which are low-cost travel destinations. Sakhalin is not a tourist spot, but its hotel infrastructure has not kept pace with the flood of oil and gas industry workers that now crowd its hotels. So vacant rooms are scarce and expensive. I paid about $120 a night at the Sakhalin Sapporo, averaging the exchange rate then and now, and about $108 at the Ukraina, a massive Soviet-era hotel in Moscow. But even with those hotel costs, food, souvenirs, and side trips to the Kremlin and the Tretyakov Gallery, I came back home with $800 dollars. Both hotels, I should have added, took credit cards, which is not uncommon in big Russian cities these days. Yes, you may pay a bit more because your credit card company is doing the conversion at its rate, but it can spare you the hassle of extra cash.

I took slightly more--$2,500--on my second trip in September 2005, but that was because that was when the $1,000 orphanage donation required by my agency needed to be paid and that needed to be paid in Russia. I stayed three additional room nights (my 10 days were waived) and in addition to the cash donation to the orphanage, I bought about 40 pounds of apples for the children. My restaurant costs were roughly the same (my little guy wasn't eating nearly the quantity of food he is putting away now), and I came home with $700.

What do you do about all this? When you are picking an agency to work with, ask them about their total costs and when and where these need to be paid. Ask them how much is required as an orphanage donation. You will need to bring the money in new $50 or $100 bills, and you should give your bank several days' notice so it can assemble them.

But taking $10,000 or $15,000 in cash? No way. Never.