new accrediation news out of RUssia

I've received a lot of email and phone calls from friends with the news of the agencies who have received accreditation in Russia.

First, the facts: According to the Ministry of Education website (the Russian department that oversees orphanages and adoptions)...each agency was given permission to operate in a separate ministerial order. The orders were all issued the same day (June 27, 2007), with identical text except for the name of the agency. They were issued in sequential order, as is normal practice for the MoE's official orders. Since they were all issued the same day, sequentially, it is fair to say that all of these agencies were given permission to operate simultaneously. However, for those among us who love to pick at details, I will list them in the sequential order that the MoE granted them:

Order Number / Agency Name
No. 183 - L'Agence Francaise d'Adoption (French Adoption Agency)
No. 184 - Children's Home Society and Family Services
No. 185 - Frank Adoption Center, North Carolina
No. 186 - Cradle of Hope Adoption Center, Inc.
No. 187 - Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 188 - International Assistance Group (IAG)
No. 189 - Cradle Society
No. 190 - Family and Children's Agency, Inc.

Now - to answer some questions:

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US? Nothing really. None of these agencies work in Irkutsk. There are VERY FEW that do. The agency names we would be more excited about are: Nightlight or Crossroads. Bethany works in Irkutsk too - but they are partnered with Nightlight (I think). ARC (Adoption Resource Center) also used to work in Irkutsk, but (if I remember right) they were the agency who was involved with the Hilt murder - so I doubt they will get accreditation back (even if they do, I wouldn't want to be partnered with them).

WHEN ARE MORE AGENCIES GOING TO BE ACCREDITED? From what I have seen, the best guess I can say is that another group will be announced sometime early Fall (maybe late September).


HAVE WE CONTACTED THESE OR ANY OTHER AGENCY TO HELP US? Of course. We contacted MANY agencies in the past 2 years. Most told us what we already knew - they don't work in Irkutsk. One that does work in Irkutsk told us that when they get accreditation back, that we should contact them at that time - and they could possibly help us. What this would mean is that we would (again) start over - we would have to pay the initial fees to this new agency, go to the back of their line etc. Not something we are real interested in doing.

DO WE HAVE AN AGENCY? No. The agency we were working with was the agency who represented the Hilt adoption - and we all know how that ended up. Because of the black mark against this agency, we can not have any affiliation with them or anyone who has (or is) working with them - if we ever want to complete the adoption. This advice came straight from Irkutsk. Thankfully, they did not do our home study - I know of other families who had their home study rejected by courts in other parts of Russia because of the agency.


I hope this answers all of the questions. If not - feel free to post them here!