Runaround

In my last post I mentioned that I had written an e-mail to the Russian Ministry of Education & Science (MoE) about the home study provider "black list," asking how often they plan to update it. Yesterday, they replied.

But don't get too excited.

The reply I received was from the service that runs the "Forum" or Q&A section on the MoE's official "Adoption in Russia" website, also known as usynovite.ru. While they were very polite, they indicated that it is "not within their compentency" to provide me with that particular answer. In other words, they said it's not their job. Instead, they suggested I should write and mail a letter directly to Alina Levitskaya, who is the official in charge of the MoE department that oversees adoptions.

So, now I will write a letter and mail it. The trouble is, the postal service in Russia is notoriously slow. Think "snail mail," with the emphasis on "snail." Hopefully, within a couple of months, I will receive some type of answer. But by then, I suppose we will probably already know how often they plan to update the list.

I have enough history communicating with Russian officials that this reply did not come as a surprise. But I know it must be frustrating or disappointing for some of you. Hang in there; we'll find an answer one way or the other.

I will also continue to watch the publicly posted list for an update, and I'll be sure to post about it as soon as I know.