Sometimes, the ins and outs of adopting from Russia just make my head hurt. Like today.

For the last two weeks, I have been trying to chase down a rumor that a U.S. government agency, not late post-placement reports, was holding up the re-accreditation process. I finally got confirmation today, after many rounds of phone calls and e-mails, that it was, but it is no longer.

Here's what happened. As part of the re-accreditation process, an obscure American bureaucracy that goes by the name of the U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol had to provide background checks on U.S. adoption agencies to the Russian Ministry of Justice. The USNCB, as it is known, is the United States' representative to the international police cooperation agency Interpol, and it is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.

USNCB staffers did the background checks for the 13 agencies that have been accredited so far while a key member of the agency was on vacation. When this person got back, he determined that proper procedures had not been followed. He stopped sending background checks to Russia until the USNCB gathered all the information it needed in the way in which it was needed, information like an agency's status with its home-state licensing authority and the Council on Accreditation. Sir, I appreciate your thoroughness, but next time, how about a "While I Am Out" note to the staff before you leave?

I know that USNCB is back to processing the background checks, but I do not know how many have been completed or sent to Russia. I have made several phone calls and sent several e-mails to both USNCB and the DoJ for comment and clarification, to no avail.

What this all means for the outstanding accreditations is unclear. As I indicated last week, many officials who served under former Russia Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov found seats in the new government of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov. But Fradkov's minister of justice, Yury Chaika, and his minister of health, Mikhail Zurabov, were not among them. That means two of the four ministers we need to sign off on the accreditations are new. And as much as I hate to say it, that means a new degree of uncertainty.

Pass the aspirin, please.