Epiphany

I've been paying especial attention to Elena's progress in learning English, both because she's at the age where kids really acquire language, and because English is effectively her second language.  (Kids adopted from foreign-language countries frequently have language delays.)  One thing she hasn't really mastered so far is pronouns, which if you consider it are somewhat complicated: the words "me" or "you," for example, refer to completely different people depending on who's doing the talking.  Weird!

In any case, Elena sticks with third-person names in conversation: "Dada help Lena tie shoes," for example.  Teresa and I still use pronouns in conversation, but when we want to make sure she understands something, we'll revert to the third person also: "Lena, stay here" or whatever.  Elena still seems to understand when we tell "you" to do something, but it's also clear we're talking to her at the time through eye contact or gestures.

So she's never actually used a pronoun until just recently. (More after the break.)

The taxman giveth, and the taxman taketh away

International adoption is quite expensive. I estimate we spent around $60,000 during the whole Russian adoption process.  Roughly half of that went to our adoption agency; roughly half of the remainder went to airline tickets.  Most of the rest went to other travel-related expenses, including hotels, meals, visas and the like, with the leftover expenses related to paperwork, medical checks, and other minor bits and pieces.

Luckily, the US government is understanding, and kicks in an Adoption Tax Credit that covers, dollar for dollar, the first $13,360 spent (Michigan, at least for 2011, kicks in an additional $1200).  That doesn't exactly cover all of the expenses we incurred, but it's nothing to turn down either.

Of course, filing an Adoption Tax Credit triggers an automatic "review" of one's return, and we just received a notice to that effect.  Hopefully the "review" is short and sweet and doesn't require our personal participation, but we will see.

ADDENDUM; 3/22: We just got our monthly bank statement today, and it turns out that the IRS direct deposited the portion of our refund not accounted for by the adoption tax credit.  I infer that means the "review" will only cover the adoption tax credit documentation, and not the remainder of our return, which is something of a relief.  In any case, it's very gentlemanly of them to complete the processing of the rest of our refund, so chalk up another mark in the "giveth" column.

ADDENDUM, JUNE: The IRS asked for a proof of a legal adoption (Elena's adoption decree, or her visa, was sufficient) and proof of expenses.  We sent the IRS a signed letter from our adoption agency verifying how much we had paid them, and copies of credit card statements which had our major travel expenses (airfare, mostly), and some miscellaneous receipts.  That covered about 95% of what we had claimed on our tax return, and since that number was far in excess of the $13,360 we had to prove to qualify for our credit, we didn't bother with the last 5%.  That was sufficient for the IRS, because they reviewed our paperwork for a month or so, and sent is a nice form letter stating everything was A-OK.  I'm not sure why they couldn't have done that from the beginning, since we had provided proof of adoption and (admittedly abbreviated, but still sufficient) proof of expenses with our original filing, but the refund showed up in our checking account even before we received their notice, so all's well that ends well.

My Girl Wants To Potty All the Time

Before we actually adopted Elena, the consensus among people we talked to who'd been there and done that was that orphanage staff always claim that the kids are potty trained, but they really aren't. Or, at least, they only "use the potty" by virtue of of being put on the potty at the same time, many times a day, but not because they actually realize they need to go. 

So when we visited Elena, the orphanage staff told us Elena was potty trained.  We nodded, but silently assumed they were exaggerating her proficiency.  And, sure enough, once we actually got home, Elena showed no real interest in using the potty.  Yup, the orphanage staff had been stretching the truth.  Or worse, maybe she was now held back by negative feelings after being forced to do something she was not ready for.

Exaggeration?? Force?  Actually...probably not.

More after the jump.

More food preferences

It turns out Elena likes pretty much everything, if it's in small quatities and she can graze at her leisure.  She's particularly fond of sharply tart or bitter foods, so long as they aren't spicy.

We've been letting her help while cooking (actually, it's "help," with quotation marks, but you know what I mean) and taste the ingredients as they go in.  It doesn't matter what the ingredient is, she always wants another taste.
Sugar? More!
Cinnamon? More!
Salt? More!
Black pepper? More!
Flour? More!
Lemon juice? More!
Olive oil? More!
Ground coffee? More!
Soy sauce? More!
Vinegar? More!
Garlic? More!
And so on.  I don't think she's spit out anything yet that's been presented as a little sneak taste.

And as I said, she seems to be particularly fond of tart, salty, or bitter foods.  Snacktime yesterday was green olives, blue cheese, brined carrots, and Greek yogurt.  I suspect her like for flavorful foods like these is a reflection of her desire to experience new, stimulating things in small controllable quantities.