Finally...pictures!

Back in the USA

Praise the Lord! We are back on US soil! When we landed in Detroit on Wed. afternoon, I was sure that someone out of our group (Steve and I and the Miller family) would kiss the ground! We probably would have if we weren't being rushed through customs! We arrived back in Atlanta at 6 pm on Wed, and after stopping off for some Chinese take-out (yes, you heard right), we finally made it to the comfort of our own home and our 2 little ones! Steve and I cried after seeing Steffi and Liz - it felt so good to hold them in our arms! Liz has grown - she is a little girl now! They both welcomed Danielle willingly, and all of them were playing together within minutes - what a sight to see! Oh, I wanted to let you all know how well Danielle did on the flight. We were totally dreading the return trip home, but she was great! She took some good naps and ate well - things couldn't have gone better! We were surely blessed. Danielle is already making her mark in the family - her grieving has all but disappeared and she is laughing, goofing off and running all over the house as if she has lived here forever. Liz is a little selfish with me, which I expected, but they are working things out - Danielle can sure hold her own! Danielle has also done well with the time change - she has only woken up twice each night and goes back to bed after a bottle and a little looking around. She is awake and playing during the day - we are starting to get on schedule...except that she has been sleeping in until 10 am! Can you believe it - that is NOT typical Tanski child behavior - but we love it!! Actually, Liz has been sleeping in until 9 am - grandparents must have worn her out! In fact, my dad and niece left this morning - a whole day early. They said that they wanted to give us space, but I think that they were too tired to keep up! My mom will be staying here until Thurs - and I am grateful for that! We ventured out to Target today - boy, 3 kids sure is interesting! We got everything done, but I can tell you that I will be running errands on days when 1 and 2 are in school!! I am sorry that I haven't posted anything for a while - the last few days in China were very busy, 2 travel days and yesterday I was just exhausted! I also had to be available to 3 little ones who were trying to get use to things! I do want to thank you all for your love, prayer and support - we are all doing well, and hopefully we will be able to introduce our newest member to you all soon!!

I am happy to report that Danielle is doing great! She still cries for her mom and grandmother at bed time and at naps, but she no longer is grieving all the time. We have given her pictures of her foster mom, and when she first saw it, she dropped her head back and screamed in pain. It was so hard to watch. Now when she is grieving, she goes and gets the pictures to show us. We all shed some tears together, and she moves on. I must say that watching a 15 month old grieve is the absolute hardest thing I have ever had to go through - and many of you know some of the hard things that I have had to go through. This is the worst. I am just grateful to God that he is healing her heart - please keep up the prayers. We had a great dinner last night at the White Swan Hotel (another big adoption hotel that is absolutely beautiful). One of the guys who plays softball with Steve has a brother (Richard) who just moved here to Guangzhou with his wife (Tisha) and 2 daughters. Tisha is working at the US Consulate - although not in the adoption department at this time. Anyway, we were able to meet up with them for a wonderful dinner. Their daughters are beautiful - ages 4 & 15 months, so Tao Tao wasn't the only one making a mess at the table. Oh!! She finally drank something! At dinner she drank a liquid yogurt that is very popular here. She also began to show us that she can eat! She loves fruit (especially mandarin oranges and dragon fruit)...in fact, she ate 4 oranges at lunch and 4 at dinner. She wanted more, but we couldn't in good conscience do it - we didn't want her tummy to get upset! She really is doing well. We are glad that she is eating, but now she is boycotting the bottle - go figure. I actually think that the bottle reminds her of her mother, but at least she is getting food now. She is a cutie - very busy and always exploring. For those of you who know our other 2 girls, you know that she will fit right in! Right now, Steve and Tao Tao are out on a tour of a flower pagoda, and I am alone in the hotel room. I went on a shopping expedition with a local - Ann (from redthreadchina.com). She was fabulous! I bought all of the souveniers that I needed/wanted and then some, for a fraction of the price that I can find around our hotel. It's almost embarrassing what I spent on some things! In fact, she just came back to my room with her friend who is a finger painting artist - wait until you see what this young man (age 22) can paint with his fingertips and nails! It is breathtaking! I bought a number of pictures from him for such a steal! But at least he gets all of the money instead of only 40% of the jacked up prices here on Shamian Island (where our hotel is). It is also cool that I was able to meet and talk to him - so now I can honestly say that I met the man who painted our pictures!! I am a little disappointed that I missed out on our tour, but I am so glad that I went shopping! Like I said, I bought all that I could possibly need and we will still be bringing money home. It was worth paying Ann $10 per hour for her help and bargaining skills - I couldn't have done it without her! I just wanted to let you all know that things are really going well now - and now that shopping is done, I am ready to go home. Only 2 more days before we fly home and I am more than ready! I am so grateful for all of your comments, prayers and support. Keep them up - we need them. I know that you all want pictures, and I am sorry that I haven't posted more. Computers here are ridiculously slow and I really haven't had the time to fiddle with it! I promise to post a ton when I get home. I was going to try to post some now, but Steve has the camera. Hold on - only a few more days and you will have pictures - I promise!! Love to you all!

Well, we made it to Guangzhou - the last leg of our journey, before returning home. We also have great news....yesterday (Friday) and today, Fu Tao woke up without crying! This was a first! She still cries for her mom before she goes to sleep, but she is definitely adjusting! On Friday was the best day we have had so far. She still prefers Daddy, but she is smiling and interacting more and more. Our flight left Nanning at 6:50 pm last night and it was full of adoptive families; however, our little one was the one that cried the most. She actually did really well considering that her naps had been messed up, and she was probably hungry from hunger strikes this week. Amy gave her a lollipop, and let me tell you, our little country girl knew how to work it! She tore it up - but she was a sticky mess (and so was Daddy). We arrived at the Victory Hotel late last night and had a bit of difficulty getting her to sleep, but once she was down, she stayed down. Finally, this morning our little girl ate a great breakfast! She still won't eat congee, but this was the first day that our Asian Princess ate rice - go figure! After breakfast, we went for her physical exam - that was not fun! The place was packed and it was her naptime! We actually went through the exams quite quickly and then it was back to the hotel for naps. While Daddy and Tao Tao napped, I worked on our paperwork for the US consulate...we are finally done with paperwork and fees! WHEW! We went to Lucy's for lunch (where Steve and I had cheeseburgers and Tao Tao tore up some noodles and ate 4 mandarin oranges!). Then we tracked down a stroller and bought her squeaky shoes! Right now she is squeaking all over our suite! Very cute! So all in all, things are getting better and better every day - thank you God! Oh, the clerk at one of the shops here told us that she was "spicy" - very accurate description. Although we are enjoying our time here, we are ready to come home. After I complete my shopping list, then I will be good to go! Our love to you all! Oh, and Stephanie and Liz are doing fantastic - all that worrying for nothing! Again - thank you God!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We sure miss the turkey and all of the fixin's...but to be honest, it doesn't even feel like Thanksgiving Day! Instead of the big family feast, we went to visit a buddist temple and a beautiful park. We climbed the 9 stories to the top of a pagoda to see a beautiful view. Daddy carried Fu Tao all the way up and all the way down, even though she is very good at steps! This little girl sure can move! She runs faster than any 15 month I have ever met, and she even alternates feet going up stairs (this info is important to the therapist in me). Oh, and she can even peel her own bananas! Okay, the bananas get a little mutilated, but she can open them quite easily. She hasn't eaten a whole lot for us - I guess that she is sort of on a hunger strike, but when she does eat it is usually fruit, noodles, cookies and crackers. She did eat some french fries at breakfast and some McDonald chicken nuggets for lunch. She is doing a little better today, but she still cries for her mom and grandma. It is heartbreaking. When we are in the hotel room, she grabs our finger and leads us to the door as if to tell us, "Take me home". Poor little one doesn't understand that she is home. She did wave to her big sisters today via Skype, and I know that they will help her to feel more at home. And no worries, little Tao Tao will definitely be able to hold her own! She is a little feisty one! We were able to develop some pictures that her foster family took for us, and there was one picture of her playing with chickens - no lie! She definitely lived in rugged conditions, but I bet she would give anything to go back. Please keep praying for her to love her new home and family. We know that she will, we just hope that it's sooner than later. We had to say good-bye to Meg yesterday...that was very hard. Even though I had never even met her before, I really connected with her. I was very sad to see her go - yet again, more tears shed! She will be coming to the States over Christmas, so hopefully we will see each other - hopefully with a more adapted Fu Tao! All in all, we are hanging in there. We desperately miss our girls, family and friends and can't wait to come home, but we are enjoying China. Thank you to everyone who posts messages to us....we long for more (oh, Camille - I could not find a single can of Pringles in Laibin!). We love you all and hope that you eat some turkey for us! I will try and post more pictures - I know you all want them, but honestly, our focus has been on Fu Tao - we are doing everything we can to help her during her grieving process - we welcome any suggestions!!

Officially ours!

Well, it is official...Lai Fu Tao is officially our daughter! We went to the civil affairs office this morning to pay our fees and put our thumbprints where they needed to go, and that was that! That was the highlight of our day. We found out that we will not be able to tour the orphanage or meet the foster family. That was a disappointment, but we do understand and do not want to cause trouble. Although we feel that it would mean so much to Danielle for us to meet them, we are going to be able to contact the family through the orphanage, and I am glad for that. If we return to China when Danielle gets older, then we can meet the foster family...and we will. We have every intention of bringing her back one day so that she can visit her birthplace. Now for the hardest news...Danielle is grieving very hard. She is so sad and misses her Mama and Nana (grandmother). She cries for them at sleep time, and sometimes during the day, but bed time is the worst. She just fell asleep after crying for 45 minutes. Her little heart is breaking. It is so hard to watch. We try to remind ourselves that this is actually a good thing - she needs to grieve. It also means that she was so loved by her family and she loves them...hopefully she will be able to love us soon too. She hates being inside - especially in our room. She cries almost non-stop when she is in here, so we try and get out as much as possible. She is attaching more to Steve at this point, but does want me to carry her sometimes, and will go outside with me alone. If we are in the room she prefers Steve, but will go back and forth, as if she doesn't know who to turn to. She is so missing her family. It is hard to watch other families with children who are not having as hard of a time. I know the facts and the reasons, but it is still heartbreaking. I keep telling myself that it will get better, but it still doesn't help sometimes. We did get some photos of her first year of life, and Meg just took 2 disposable cameras full of pictures to get developed, so hopefully we will see what is on them soon. Meg has been a God-send. She is such a big help! She ran out and got baby shoes for us last night, as Fu Tao came to us barefoot! The one thing that I didn't pack! Steve and I are both sad that Meg will be leaving on Wed - we will definitely miss her. I have so enjoyed getting to know her - we actually are a lot a like, and I can honestly say that I love her dearly! Okay, I will end on a positive note - Danielle finally ate real food! She has been surviving on bottles and Cheerios, but at lunch today, she ate noodles...from a chopstick! How cute! She really ate a good amount for such a little one! She is tiny - wearing 9 month clothes perfectly. May be getting ready for 12 months soon. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a brief update. Please pray for all of us...Steve and I are so sad for her - it is the absolute hardest thing that we have had to go through. Please pray that God heals her heart - He is the only one that can!