FYI: this post refers to a video - but that video is not here. I have been trying all night to download it and I finally thought I got it but I was wrong. A 30 second video clip has been attempting to download for over 9 hours now so I am thinking that I am doing something wrong! I will try again later today! Sorry guys.

The wind is finally back in our sails, and we are trudging forward. It has been an AWFUL and very stressful 2 weeks. My little Angel has returned and she is cute as ever, as you can see from the new video!! Olena has had a few (couple dozen) crabby and bad girl days...they were everyday....every waking minute....and I was at the end of my rope. Nothing changed in the way we were doing things or even what we were doing. She just woke up being a whinny, impatient, tantrum throwing, naughty little girl and she stayed that way for a few weeks. Then late last week she woke up the old Olena and we have been fine ever since?? kids can really test your sanity.
I guess this is too be expected, not just from a typical toddler but an adopted toddler as well. Perhaps she just really needed to put us to the test to see if we were really sticking around?? Maybe she was grieving?? more so lately she has taken an interest in the Ukraine pictures and she never really cared before. She was actually speaking fluent Russian to the lady at my dad's work who was trying to communicate with her using Polish?!? who knows her reason, but she was God awful!! Please forgive me for saying that but it is the honest to goodness truth! Nothing mad her happy, she threw fits constantly, no type of punishment was working in fact every time we punished it made things worse and last even longer....we were tough though we didn't give in. But that is what made it even harder because we were dealing with 30-45 minute tantrums, one right after the other! It really starts to test your strength as husband and wife too! Now that it is over, we have very much enjoyed our daughter and have spent a lot of time together lately just having fun.
Lots of work has been going on too. We got the living room painted, finally. I am disappointed in our decision to use semi-gloss because our house is old, and the walls are not in the greatest shape. The semi-gloss shows a lot of flaws. Not sure why we did it anyways...we know this, and we have painted in our house several times and every time we have used eggshell. I think that the both of us were just so emotionally and mentally drained that we just didn't care. We painted at night, so we didn't even realize the stupid thing we did until the next morning. Oh well, I told Jason I would just hide all the bad parts with pictures :)
We also installed 4 new windows - and they look beautiful. We will continue to buy a few at a time when we get the extra money until the whole house is done! We did both the windows in Olena's room and now we can open them from the top, which is nice. No more little fingers pushing holes through my screens!!
Olena is doing great in all areas, expect the potty training still. We haven't even tried again because she gets so mad when we ask.
Here are some of the things she knows ; all colors, all basic shapes, she will not sing the ABCs but she is starting to identify letters...she knows A-E without help. She can count and recognize numbers 1-10, she will hold up her fingers and show you the corresponding numbers, she can name all 100 words in her picture dictionary, she talks in sentences but it is choppy, like "mommy, may I, cookie please", she is lacking the verbs but she tries to get out as much as she can and she will repeat herself correctly if I ask. She will name and locate all parts of her body...head, hair, eye, chin, cheek, lips, ears, neck, shoulders, elbow, wrist, fingers, belly, back, butt, legs, knees, ankles, thighs, toes, heals, and finally finger/toe nails! she is one smart cookie. She knows the sign language for all of the things in a home such as table, chair, refrigerator, bowl, cup, bed, etc., and apparently from the video she knows all of the dance moves to High School Musical!! Sorry for the gloating but this is her "baby's first year" diary, so this will all be important to her one day, I'm sure.

News in Ukraine: looks like everyone will be waiting a little longer before coming home with the new little ones. The Ukrainian Government has issued a 10 days wait for the child's passport. This adds another 10 days in addition to the 10 days you have to wait to get your court decree. Unfortunately you need to get the court decree to apply for the passport :(
I know it is so easy to criticize the system, but the rules are the rules, and to be honest, I would just bite the bullet and deal with it. This little girl, by all means, is worth another 10 day wait. Yes it is just another way for them to make money off of adoptive parents, but that is the cost of international adoption and it is a "fee" you are going to pay regardless of where you go in this world. At some point, of every one's journey, you will line the pockets of someone who is only in it for the money, and you will encounter a rule/law that you will not agree with. But so what?? If you have chosen to adopt you are already showing strength, you are one of the one's who got over the negative aspects of adoption and moved on to receiving one of the greatest gifts that life can give, the chance to care for a child that someone else couldn't - and a chance to teach them to love! To any new perspective parents, don't let this change your mind, and don't let it discourage you. There are too many perfect children out there waiting for a family. We waited 2.5 years. I was neurotic, depressed, and thought that I would NEVER get to Ukraine, but I look back now and it was all just a small moment in time, for a life time of happiness. IT IS ALL WORTH IT!! TRUST ME!