I'm so excited because I now know that I can tell you Olivia's real name! Her name is Oksana and she will be Oksana Valerie Loraine. Here's the really cool thing about her names. First of all, there was a child in the foster care system that God used to call us not only to adoption but specifically special needs adoption and her name was Olivia. When we first saw Oksana's picture and started learning about her and feeling drawn to her we had not even looked at her name yet and were shocked to see that it was Olivia! We later found out that her real name is Oksana. As soon as we heard the name we both looked at each other and agreed that we loved it. I love names, in fact naming my kids was one of my favorite parts of my pregnancy. Oksana is one of those names that I have always thought was so beautiful but never would have had the nerve to name a child without a Slavic bone in her body! God, however, decided to give me an Oksana anyway!
We made the decision to keep her name, not only because we love it but also because we know she calls herself Oksana and identifies with it. There are many opinions on either side of the "keep the name or rename" debate but we've felt confident from the beginning that this was the right choice for us. Oksana allows her a name with connection to her heritage so we wanted a middle name that would connect her to her family. That is why her middle name will be Valerie after Larry's sister. Valerie is pregnant with a daughter and Larry, of course, suggested that now she would need to give her daughter the middle name Lawrence! Needless to say that didn't go over too well :).
The things we have already learned about her name are that 1)everyone immediately says "Oh, like the figure skater!" and 2)it is commonly misspelled. We've seen Oxana, Oksena, etc. As my mom said "She'll never have a barrette with her name on it!"
As far as the process, we are still gathering and filling out paperwork and waiting for my passport, which is necessary for us to make any big strides forward. Please pray that it will come quickly!
5 comments:
Love her name and I love that you are keeping it!!!
Cracking up at Larry's comment about his sister's baby!!
Also, we can't ever find anything with our girls names on them either! Norah asks whenever we see things with names on them, "Why isn't there a Norah?"
Found your blog and wanted to say hi. I live in Sherwood with my 4 adopted kids. My oldestis 14, shecame home from Estonia inn Sept. 09. She speaks Russian, so if you needed help with Oksanaif she speaks Russian let me know and we can help you when she comes home!
Charlotte
raeghansmom@yahoo.com
Beautiful Name. Reminds me of the figure skater of the same first name. Praising God for what He is doing in and through your precious family!
Congrats to your family.
I think she is so pretty. Her eyes, her smile, everything!
Praying for a fast and smooth adoption.
Oh how lovely!
Wouldn't it just be fantastic if you and the Lutz family travelled at the same time? I believe they're headed to the same orphanage as you for 3 kids with DS!
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