Sending email, how to get message "Queue ID"

[Tom]

I am happily using MIME::Lite to send messages via sendmail, but I am
stuck on a problem. I need to track the status of the message to
ensure it was properly accepted by the local sendmail agent and the
remote mail host (i.e. date/time it was accepted by the remote host,
X-Status message id assigned by that host, if delivery was deferred,
etc.)

I can do this in MIME::Lite by setting the Message-ID parameter, then
parsing the sendmail maillog file for this message-ID and returning the
Queue ID. Then, following the Queue ID through the same maillog. This
seems like such a hack (and dangerous setting the Message-ID, but there
doesn't seem to be a way of just fetching it). Is there a better way?

Tom