So you've decided to adopt from Russia--congratulations! Now, who's going to help you do it?

Picking the right agency is, in my opinion, the key to a successful adoption. Note my emphasis on "agency". Yes, I know of successful adoptions that have been done through independent intermediaries. But as Russia moves closer to full implementation of the Hague Convention On Intercountry Adoption, the wide-open days of the independents are drawing to a close. You need an agency. To find the right one, start by asking these 10 questions:

1) When was this agency accredited in Russia?
2) How long have you been handling adoptions in Russia?
3) How many Russian adoptions have you handled?
4) What will your U.S. staff help me do?
5) How many employees do you have in Russia?
6) What is the cost of an adoption through your agency?
7) When are the adoption fees paid?
8) How do you select the children you will refer to me?
9) How long will my adoption take?
10) What do you do to help the children you can't find forever families for?

I've written before on the importance of accreditation. You can get great answers on the other nine questions, but question one is key. And the accreditation should be for this agency and not some umbrella organization it belongs to. Questions two and three speak to the agency's experience: Russia is a tough country and, just as with software, you don't want an agency that is version 1.0. There is a lot of paperwork--U.S. and Russian--that needs to be filled out for an adoption. Will the agency you are considering show you how to do it right so your application isn't delayed?

I've traveled a lot around the world, and my foreign language skills include a smattering of Russian. But I was very glad that my agency had staffers meet me at the airport and take me to every bureaucrat I had to meet. And when I hit a paperwork snag on my first adoption, I had somebody in-country who knew the right person in Moscow to fix it quickly so my court hearing could proceed.

Russian adoptions cost money. But I cry every time I hear about people who have paid excessive fees for unnecessary work. Ask each agency for its fees, and compare them. And a good agency bills you in stages, with the bulk of the fees at the end. Period.

There are, according to Unicef, 867,800 children living in Russia's orphanages. Some have mental or physical challenges, and if you want to be the parent of a special needs child, your agency should have a way to help you find that child. As a single parent, I didn't feel I could do that, and I used my agency's questionnaire to let them know what kind of child could be the best match for my family.

With the turmoil in Russian adoptions lately, the "how long" question is something of a wild card. But asking it can help you find an agency with a realistic perspective.

Question ten may seem odd, but let's face it: Even if you and everybody you know jump on the Russia adoption bandwagon, not every one of those 867,800 children will find a forever family. A good agency helps all the children, not just those who can begin new lives in America.