Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting someone new. I met her through our local university's international student conversation partner program.

I applied last year, but since I specified somebody Russian (since my son is adopted from Russia) and it was late in the year there was no one they could hook me up with. I reapplied about a month ago and was given this woman's name. Yesterday I went to see her.

I was open to her about my motivation for participating in the program. I told her that since we've been to Russia I was interested in learning more about the culture, but also I'd like my son exposed to Russian people and this seemed like a great way to do it. Although she is highly educated and her English seemed flawless to me, she is interested in working on her accent.

I don't know what I was expecting but it sure wasn't who I got! My "conversation partner" has a PhD in chemistry and she looks like Russian-beauty-meets-California-girl! Plus, she has two sons (like me), is very open, and was amazingly friendly. I am so pleased with the experience. I had figured I'd be meeting with the wife of a student at UNC whose English was very limited, and with whom I'd have stilted conversation with about "safe" topics. I can tell already that that is not going to happen.

I was worried about her opinion about Russian adoption. She seemed very open about it.

I can tell (or hope, at least), that I'm going to have a new friend in this woman.

If you are near a university and you've adopted internationally this type of program may be available to you. Every year universities around the country create programs for their international students and volunteers, even those with a certain agenda, are needed. I've actually done this before - way back when I was in grad school I was hooked up with a nice Korean couple as an "International friend" but we didn't have a heck of a lot in common. The wife spoke no English (but made astonishing home-made tofu) and the husband, although he spoke English, was a computer guy. We didn't have too much in common. But still, it was an interesting experience for us and if we'd had more connections to Korea (like a child adopted from there) I would think it would be even more meaningful.