I have two cautionary tales to bring to your attention today. They don't involve Russia, but they reflect attitudes toward inter-country adoption that could have reverberations there. And if nothing else, I hope you will take away from these stories some common sense steps to take in your own adoption journey.

The first involves a family who posted to their blog a picture of the child they had been referred--before their court date. The authorities in this country found out--the Internet is a global phenomenon, folks--and canceled the adoption.

Could this happen in Russia? You betcha. Russian authorities take the privacy of the children in their orphanages very seriously and the trend in many regions has been to scale back, or completely eliminate, photographs and personal information from the data released to prospective adoptive parents prior to trip one.

You will notice, when you are in-country for your adoption visits, that you will generally meet with the child referred to you in a separate room in the orphanage. Again, it's an issue of privacy. You may be asked not to photograph the other children, or if you do, to not share those photos over the Internet. And as for posting pictures of your own child, the most common sense option may be to not post any until the 10-day waiting period is over, or to take your blog private. (I wrote about some of the ways to do this last February).

The second cautionary tale is the one about the dollars. A family seeking to adopt tried to fundraise through their blog to cover their costs. Officials in their target country found out and told them that if they couldn't afford to adopt, they shouldn't be allowed to.

I have seen more than a few of you post fundraising counters on your blogs and write about some of the things you are doing to raise money. Believe me, I am sympathetic to the cost of an adoption, particularly in Russia. But I have written before that there are good ways and bad ways to fund an adoption, and the events with this family raise a sensible caution. Think about keeping the money part private, or again, take the whole blog private.

If you do go private, and want to allow me to keep reading your blog for the Russian family blogroll, please drop me an e-mail at virginiac@adoptionblogs.com or vcitrano@gmail.com.

Image: pennywise at Morguefile.com