Thank you, Doodaddy!

About 2 weeks ago, I took Danielle with me to get me haircut - total disaster! Danielle cried the entire time - and she was sitting on my lap! Thank goodness I have a great stylist, Brynn, who stayed focused and did a great job, despite the distraction. I kept trying to reassure her that I was enjoying myself, but she didn't listen (next time I will go alone). So, you can imagine how I was dreading a dentist appointment for today!! How could I tell her that I liked getting my teeth picked at - NOT! Well, Doodaddy came to the rescue (when Liz was a baby, she couldn't say Grandaddy, so she came up with the name Doodaddy, and it has kind of stuck)! He offered to meet me at the office and watch Liz and Danielle while Stephanie and I had our teeth cleaned. We were both a little nervous, but all went well! Danielle cried at first, but only briefly, and Danielle and Liz remained happy for the full 45 minutes that I was in the dentist chair! This was technically Danielle's first time with a "babysitter" - other than me or Steve!! They came back to check on me a couple of times, but no more tears!! It does help that I have an awesome dentist that insists I bring my children and enjoys it when they run around the office. Dr. Ashley wants the kids to LIKE coming to the dentist and they do! Liz is very excited to have her own appointment in July! I am so grateful that Doodaddy lives close by so that he was able to help - thank you, Doodaddy! After our appointment, we met Nana and Doodaddy for lunch and playtime at McDonald's. And now, all 3 girls are peacefully napping - God is good!!

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First Chinese New Year party!!!

On Saturday, we attended our first FCC-Atlanta event (Families with Children from China). We went to their Lunar New Year party and we all had a great time!! We were a little worried as to how Danielle would handle it, but she did great! Only one little melt down during lunch, but that was because she was beyond tired and not overwhelmed. The girls loved to watch the dancers, but they especially loved to watch the traditional Lion Dance! Liz even joined in the parade with DooDaddy (aka Grandaddy). I was so amazed at how well all of our girls did in the crowd - there were over 500 people at this event. Nana and DooDaddy came with us, and I think that they enjoyed themselves as well. Oh! Stephanie won the raffle! One of the vendors at the event was raffling off a handmade quilt, and Stephanie won! I was amazed. She was so excited and has slept with it ever since!

Danielle continues to do remarkably well here at home. She has survived her first ear infection, and is now on her second cold (hopefully it will stay out of her ears this time). She is tolerating riding in the car, and is beginning to enjoy shopping - she has to, since we often run errands together while the other girls are in school!! She is also trying to say new words, which is great to see. Over the past week, she has shown a huge love in books and she wants us to read to her all the time. This is great, except when I am in the middle of cooking dinner! We are getting involved in playdates and having lots of fun together. I must say, it warms my heart to see all 3 of my girls playing, running and laughing together. God really blessed our family by sending this little girl into our lives - she adds so much to our family. It has been good for our other girls as well - Liz is learning to be a great big sister. Life is good - we are just grateful that God is taking such good care of us!

Danielle is a US citizen!

Yesterday we received Danielle's Certificate of US Citizenship! We knew it was coming, but it was still amazing to receive it! It was more emotional than we expected. Along with the beautiful certificate, came a letter from President Bush - it was pretty cool! Now we can go ahead and get her social security number and US passport! She is officially an American! Techinically she became a citizen when we landed in Detroit and the Immigration officer opened her packet, but now we have it in writing - praise God!

Danielle continues to transition nicely into our family. She truly is a Tanski!! We continue to be grateful that God allowed me to quit my job this past fall - it has been good to be able to stay home and take care of the girls. In fact, if I still worked for the school system, I would already have had to call in sick for 3 of my first 5 days back! Liz and Danielle have had colds, and unfortunately, Danielle's cold has progressed into an ear infection and bronchitis. So, IF I had gone back to work, I would already be out of sick time for the rest of the year!! Praise God that I am a full-time mom so that I can take care of my sick kids! They are both doing better, especially since Danielle is taking antibiotics....which wasn't easy at first! She threw a fit and didn't want to take it, but when we clap for her, then she is motivated and takes all of her medicine! This little girl loves praise - and she gets it too, as long as she isn't get into something that she is not suppose to!!! God has truly blessed our family - we have 3 beautiful girls, who we love deeply. Every day is a new adventure - some days are happy adventures, some days are learning adventures, and some days are whiney adventures - just wait until they are teens! The Tanski household will be quite interesting!

Hope For Children

We used the adoption agency, Hope For Children, to adopt our beautiful little girl. We are so grateful to this agency for all of their help and support during this journey. When I first moved to Atlanta 12 years ago, I was introduced to this agency through the church I was attending. Steve and I both volunteered at their annual golf-a-thons (and many of our family members pledged $...thank you), and helped in many other ways. Who would have known, that 12 years later, we would actually be using them to adopt our own child! We are grateful to Dave, the director and founder of HFC for his heart for children and especially adoption. Every time I look at Danielle, I feel blessed. I cannot tell you how well she is doing! Even though she has been with us for a little more than a month, it seems like she has always been a part of us. I am so grateful that God put adoption on our hearts - I can't imagine not having Danielle in our family...she is a perfect addition! It also warms my heart to see children who need families, to find one. I have posted a picture that is very dear to me - it is a picture of Danielle and 3 little girls that were all on the same Waiting Child list. All of these little girls were on "the List" that came out on April 30th, and they all have families now! Praise God! I write this, because I want you to realize how incredible adoption is - it is truly from God! Please, follow this link to our agencies website, http://www.hopeforchildren.org/index.htm and watch the video on the lower left corner of their homepage. Thank you and Happy New Year!

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Danielle is doing GREAT!

I am sorry that I haven't given any updates sooner...but life is definitely busier having 3 children under the age of 4! Danielle couldn't be doing better! She is such a delight and a wonderful addition to our family. She is sleeping in her own crib in her own room by herself! No more tears at bedtime, and she doesn't cry for her foster family anymore. We still let her look at pictures of her foster family, but instead of crying, she smiles and says, "Mama". I am her mommy, but her foster mom will always be her Mama. Meg (Steve's sister who was with us in China) is going to send a letter from us to Danielle's orphanage with updated pictures of Danielle and a request for pictures of the rest of her foster family. Please pray that we can obtain these photos - they will mean a lot to Danielle when she gets older. Speaking of Meg, she is in the States for a few weeks and we were able to spend a couple of wonderful hours with her and her boyfriend yesterday! It was so good to see her again...I really have missed her! What we didn't expect was Danielle's reaction...as soon as she saw Meg, she burst into tears! Not tired or angry tears, but sad and scared tears! We were totally surprised, but it makes sense...Meg was there when we first received Danielle, and she was the one who tried to comfort her by talking in Chinese. Also, Meg left us a little over 48 hours after we got Danielle, and she was at the peak of her grieving. Poor little Danielle! She was probably afraid that she was going to be taken away again. It was hard to see Danielle cry like that again - it was just like how she cried in Nanning. The good news is, she didn't cry for very long, and after only about 10 minutes, she began warming up to Meg, and by the end of her visit, Meg was holding Danielle and they were both smiling! Praise God!
Besides a wonderful time with Meg, we had a wonderful Christmas! We ejoyed spending lots of time together with family and friends. Danielle has been doing amazing! She is very social but still knows who her parents are and is really attaching well to us all. Last night at Nana's, she was looking at pictures of Stephanie, and was trying to say her name! She is smart as a whip! We have been teaching her signs and she picks them up after showing her only once. We are also seeing more of her personality. She seems to be use to being the little princess of the family, and she is having a little trouble understanding that we have 3 princesses here. She loves to look at pictures of herself and gets into everything imaginable. We thought that our house was childproof, but we are finding out that it is not!
We are so grateful that God has blessed us with such a beautiful little girl! She truly makes our family complete! We love how she fits right in with us - she is a blessing...all of our girls are blessings. We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Our love to you all!