I've been chuckling my way through a thread that began on the Russia Adoption forum last week: "Am I the only one out there who is 45 PLUS in age...," the poster asked, "and have a 5 year old child???"

Get in line sister, get in line. I'm doing some writing now for a college and I keep dropping broad hints about getting them to offer senior citizen discounts. I'll need them by the time I get to my tuition-paying years.

But with China's new rules on acceptable parents kicking in on Tuesday this week, I thought it was not a bad time to take a cue from the forum post and look at Russia's rules on parental age.

Russia, like China, has seemed appealing to many prospective adoptive parents because it welcomed older parents. In 1999, when I began my first adoption, the rule in Russia was that a woman could be no more than 45 years older than the child being adopted. About the time that I started on my second adoption in 2004, the age difference was raised to 48 years. And while China's new rules drop the parental age ceiling to 50 from 55, that is still considerably more generous than what would be possible in a domestic adoption.

Thankfully, despite all the turmoil in Russian adoption in recent years, the 48-year rule has not come under assault. In my court hearing in October 2005, the judge did ask me whether I thought my age would limit my ability to be a good parent. But I focused my response on the skills I thought were the most important to being a good parent--patience and respect--and she did not press further.

I am, for the record, 45 years older than my little guy (I picked the knitting granny image for fun). And yes, some days I am absolutely wiped out by bedtime. But you know what? So are the parents who are 20 years younger than me. Listen a bit to the conversations at school pickup time and you'll know what I mean.

Here's something else I have discovered: My chronological peers are packing on the pounds now, and I think it's because they don't have kids to chase after. I have a pedometer, a bike and inline skates, and they all get serious mileage on them every week. I get called on to be the opposing team when my kids want to play soccer. And just like Sandra at the Older Parent Adoption blog, I wouldn't change a minute of it.