The finals days

Not only have things been unbelievably busy in this house hold, our darling daughter has decided to make a complete fool out of me the last week and a half. Remember my last post when I was bragging about my perfect little obedient angel?? Well she is now a thing of the past! One day last week she woke up from her nap on the wrong side of the bed and has not been right since. NO is practically every other word out of her mouth, she is a total sass!, she is back to the screaming fits and jumping up and down when she doesn't get her way the second she wants it, it is a fight to get her to eat anything, and bed time has become a 30 minute fiasco! Drama Queen about sums it up! and it is driving me bonkers. Why now? why right at the Holidays when we have things to do and people to see?? though it doesn't seem like it, I am managing to turn things around slowly but surely. We had a really good day yesterday and today, things were great too...until nap. Which she refused to take even though she was exhausted.
I was able to get her down and asleep by 8:30 tonight, so now I pray! Jason wasn't here to tuck her in and that is something she has trouble cooping with, so it didn't go so smoothly. But I called him and had him say goodnight on the speaker phone and it made her feel a little better. She is definitely a daddy's girl at times :)
One positive note is that we are making great progress with potty training. This will be her second week and she has done really well. She still won't go on her own, we have to tell her to go, but she will actually hold it now. Whereas before she would just free flow regardless of where she was and what she was doing! If we don't catch the pee pee wiggle though, she will end up having an accident. I am happy and as long as we are moving forward I am satisfied.
She is extremely excited about Christmas. She understands everything that is going on. She is well aware of who Santa is and what his job is...to bring "BIG toys" as she would say. When we are out and about she greets everyone and says "ho ho ho mirrory ismas" and her new tune of choice is Jingle Bells. We are going to have a lot of fun this year and I am so excited about seeing her face Christmas morning!
Well looking back to last year at this time, we were in Kiev. We left Mykolayiv with Olena on the night of December 12. I still remember that night like it was yesterday and I still get that feeling of sadness in the pit of my stomach when I think about it. Believe it or not, I felt so bad leaving there and taking her with me. I was so happy to finally leave with her in my arms, but it just didn't seem fair. My heart stills aches just thinking about the rest of them who are still there. I will sometimes try to imagine what some of the others might be like if there were in Olena's shoes, and sadly I have looked at it from the other side too. What would Olena be like if she was still there?? The baby house was awesome and they did the best with what they had and these girls were well taken care of. Yet, it just isn't enough. Looking at the changes that she has made over this past year is remarkable. Today I looked at her while she was laughing...it is hard to explain, but when she laughs, you can't help but to be in awe because her laughter is filled with so much pure joy. You just know that this little girl, at this exact moment couldn't be any happier and that makes me feel so good.
Anyhow, we left for Kiev on the night of December 12 around 9:30 at night. We took pictures, said our goodbyes and tucked each one in for the night, kissing them on the forehead. We decided to drive by car which was a great idea. It took us about 6 hours. We were in a very comfortable car, and Olena did sleep a majority of the way. The "rest stops" were interesting enough and made the whole trip worth it. Along the highway people set up "market booths" and they would sell things like coffee, pop, water, snacks, warm food sometimes, and then back behind the booth they would have a bucket for those who had to go to the bathroom! I don't know way it amused me so much but I thought that was so cool. Well, except the bathrooms. I did opt for another option, but stopping at a hotel and using there "hole in the ground". It was actually a very very nice bathroom. It was all teal ceramic with gold fixings, and yes it was a "hole" but not in the ground. It was a real ceramic hole toilet, complete with grips for where you put your feet so you don't slip and it flush and rinsed with water. I didn't take my camera and I was bummed, but I wasn't about to ask the guys if I could go back in to take pictures, they would have thought I was crazy!!
We got to Kiev about 3 am in the morning. We stayed in a huge apartment right down town. The first night was pretty rough. Jason and I did not sleep much at all during the drive, and once we were in the apartment Olena was pretty nervous and had a lot of trouble sleeping. We managed to get a few hours then it was off to finalize the paper work at the embassy and to get her medical physical done. The day went pretty smooth. We got to see Tonya and Lyra for a few minutes, they were leaving later that day to head home.
It took us 2 days to get everything done, and we were scheduled to fly out 3 days later on the 17th. We said our good byes to Gene, and cried at the idea of leaving our new friend. And we finished off our time just getting to know each other as a family. We walked around the city, went shopping at the market for gifts for the family, went out to eat, and we even met up with Pam, Brian, and Angelina and had a celebration dinner. We found this very nice Italian restaurant right near the SDA, we had very very SLOW service, but the food was fabulous. We had ordered the girls both a bowl of mashed potatoes and they were the last to get their food, which came over 45 minutes after we ordered it. They were noisy, and screamed quite a bit, fluffing the nerves of a few guests, but all in all it was a good moment and now a great memory. Oh and Jason and I finally got that steak we were dying for. There was a Potato House across the street from our apartment and we both got a Tbone steak and it was the best steak I ever had! If you are in Kiev this restaurant is awesome! and not just for the steak. We ate there 3 times and everything we had was excellent.
Sitting here remembering everything brings a smile to my face. Those last 5 days - or should I say those FIRST 5 days as a family, together, was great. Waking up to that smiling face, bathing her myself, brushing her hair, and tucking her in at night. We experienced alot of our "first moments" those 5 days and they are some of the most previous memories of Ukriane that I have.

Busted!!!!

back when my baby would polish off a meal!

"first nap" with mommy and daddy

"woowho" life outside the desky dom is sweet!

Daddy and Olena checking things out!