Quick--click on this link and save the information here someplace in your adoption files. It is a story, written by Eric Taub of The New York Times, that contains the clearest instructions I've seen yet on using your cell phone overseas. But call up the story quickly because the Times puts stories into its archive fairly soon after they are published and then you'll have to pay $4.95 to read it, and heck, you are already spending enough money on your adoption journey to Russia.

I didn't use my cell phone on any of my trips to Russia, but then I am something of a Luddite. I am old enough to remember having been told, as a teenager on a summer exchange program to France, that I was absolutely, positively not allowed to call home unless it was a dire emergency. I don't use my cell a whole lot even here and frequently forget to charge it, which comes in very handy when you get stuck on a New York City subway during a blackout, as I did in 2002.

But I know that many people want a working phone while they are on their adoption trips to Russia, to call their pediatrician or adoption doctor back home, or to call friends and family. And while many of us know what it is like to be hit with roaming charges when we go around the United States, it is not until you travel abroad that you realize how different the U.S. cell phone system is from the rest of the world.

Just about every American cell phone operator relies on a technology called CDMA and almost every other country in the world uses a system called GSM. According to Taub, if you use Cingular or T-Mobile, you might have a phone that works in a GSM environment, but you should call your carrier to be sure. When you talk to customer service, you should also tell them that you will be using your phone in Russia and when you will be there. Cingular and T-Mobile--and many other carriers--will block usage of an American phone in countries like Russia to avoid fraud problems.

Taub goes through all the variables, and what to do if you don't have a GSM-friendly phone. Save his story and call your service provider now to check it all out.