So, you've made the decision to adopt from Russia. Excellent! You're in for a wonderful journey, both figuratively and literally. You're going to be forging connections with a fascinating country and a culture very different from our own. Soon, you'll be bringing your little one home and your life will chance forever.

But first you will need to choose an adoption agency. In years past, it was possible to adopt from Russia independently (without an agency but with the help of a connected person in Russia) and no doubt you can still do this, but I don't recommend it. Things have been getting more and more difficult in Russia over the past year and a half and I don't think that the potential savings are worth the risk.

My husband and I chose our agency, Frank, out of the phone book. That's not a method I'd recommend (!) but of course we checked up on them thoroughly before we signed up. Someone we met had actually recommended a different agency when we were first in the process, but when I called them to see if we could meet or get an orientation they said we had to pay to have the homestudy done first before they'd meet with us. At that point I didn't even know what a homestudy was so there was no way we were signing up with them.

That's my first recommendation for choosing an agency: if a red flag goes up (pay first, talk later, for example), run away. Run far, far away. There are lots and lots of agencies. Most of them are above board and are well-meaning. There's no reason to work with one that makes you nervous from the get-go. A good agency should provide orientation sessions before you pony up the money.

Second recommendation: don't fall in love with a photolisting. First of all, the Russian government does not allow listings of "available" children on the Internet (except for their own list, which I'll post about later this week), and secondly, chances are if you've fallen in love someone else has too. You don't want to duke it out over a child who's probably not available anyway, do you? The exception to this might be if the child is an older or special needs child and therefore seen as hard to adopt. If it's a picture of a baby...chances are that child is long gone.

Third recommendation: Check out your agency THOROUGHLY. Ask for references...ask your friends who their friends used...and search the Internet for information. Don't be alarmed if you see a negative post or newspaper story about your agency - the bigger the agency is the more likely they've had a trouble or two - but if you see post after post and article after article about dissatisfied clients and legal issues - RUN AWAY! For a very thorough list of questions to ask a prospective agency go to Cynthia Teeter's wonderful article on adopting.org.

You really cannot be too careful. This is the rest of your life that we're talking about. Not to mention the life of a child.