Five years. By some measures, that's not a very long time. It took 185 years to build Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, for example.

But right now, in the context of adoption from Russia, five years looks almost like eternity. That's because the new accreditations that were announced last week --the first of what will hopefully be several dozen before long--are good for five years.

Five years.

What an enormous weight that is lifted off the agencies' shoulders. They can program and plan, and give parents a timeline for their adoption journey that actually stands a chance of being followed. No more mad dashes for new paperwork to keep those older, shorter licenses from lapsing. Five years to build good relationships with the regions in which they will be working, five years to develop new relationships in regions they haven’t been in before.

OK, I know there are some folks who are disappointed. To them, this is "only" five years. That's because the rumor, for a long time, was that these new accreditations were going to be permanent. But come on, I think that most of us could probably count on the fingers of one hand the things in our lives that are permanent. And Russia's adoption rules would not have been one of them.

Five years is a good horizon. It's longer than one term for a U.S. president, and look at how much those guys get done.

There's also an interesting "five-year" parallel at the other end of this whole accreditation process. Under the new rules, an agency must have been in business for five years now before it can be considered for accreditation. That kind of rule is, frankly, long overdue. There were too many people involved in Russian adoptions in the past who were flying by the seat of their pants.

Assisting an adoption is a serious undertaking. I'm glad that the new rules are calling in the pros--and letting them do their job.