If you’ve stumbled across this blog, then I’d like to welcome you with a hearty “hello”–or, “Privyet” in Russian, whichever you prefer. This blog will chronicle the before, during and after events of our second adoption in Ukraine. I’m your host, LaFemmeMonkita, or “Ma” for short, and I’ll introduce you to our cast of characters:

I’m a writer, runner and mother to a very awesome little boy named “Na”. I’m also married to the most wonderful guy in the world, named “Pa” (I’ll explain all this silly nickname stuff in a minute, so bear with me). We live in the great Pacific Northwest with our two nutty dogs, Scout and Oatmeal, and you’ll learn much more about us in due time.

With regard to our nicknames: well, I think “Ma” and “Pa” are fairly obvious, so I’ll tell you about “Na”, or “Mr. Na” as we like to call him around here. We met Mr. Na a little over four years ago in Ukraine. He was 19 months, and only spoke two words, both of which were Russian: “Na” and “Privyet!” “Privyet” means “Hello” and “Na”–well, the little guy had that word confused. You see, it’s sort of like a slang word for “here, take it”, which is what his orphanage caregivers said when they fed him. But when we met him, he was using “Na” as “Hey, give me that. That looks TASTY!” Just one of his endearing traits that pretty much had me and Pa convinced that Mr. Na was the perfect little guy for us to adopt.

Put our nicknames together and whaddya get: PaNaMa, which you’ll probably see in a lot of my posts here, so I thought I’d provide a little bit of background so you didn’t think I was completely off my rocker.

Team PaNaMa is about to embark on a journey to Ukraine in search of another little person to add to the mix. We’re hoping somehow this next one will have a “Ra” in his/her name or use “Ra” as a part of his/her daily repertoire so we can change the family code name to “PaNaRaMa”. I don’t think that’s asking for too much.

Well, I promise not to sound too cryptic or silly in all of my posts, because adoption is a really big deal and this is something we’re super serious about. But as you get to know me , you’ll discover that love and laughter are the preeminent themes in our household. My husband and I had our share of sadness in the many early attempts at creating our family, but ever since we met Mr. Na, the joy in our everyday lives is immeasurable. So, expect a little silliness, but my hope is to educate readers about adoption in Ukraine and provide details of certain events as they unfold.

In my next few posts, I’ll provide information about Mr. Na’s adoption as well as our upcoming trip to Ukraine. We do not have a date to travel just yet, but we expect to hear something any day now, and the suspense is killing me. I’m guessing it’ll be in August some time…but I intend to keep this blog active with “before” posts until then.

I hope you’ll bookmark “Privyet” and come by often! Thanks for reading!

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