Day 2 Ox Camp

Words can never described what we just experienced in the last 48 hours...

As it is 11 pm and we just got back to our hotel in Beijing, I am going to try to quickly recap the events.

Yesterday, there was an opening ceremony where CCAA, Aleda, Civil Affairs officer, and the orphanage director all gave speeches. THen the kids all did a 1 minute intro about themselves. We knew then that we were in love with them all!!! After, Aleda (wiht translator) read them the book she wrote entitled "Our Two Cultures".
We then showed two movies about MAA children that were adopted. THANK YOU LISA AND CHRISTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey Christen- Chet asked if he could live in a house just like "Jacob's on the movie"!!!!

We then answered questions and the kids did a talent show in the afternoon. We then dressed up as clowns and played games with the children. We had a ball. All the kids loved us but one... Poor little Gretchen was terrified!!!!!!!!!

After camp, we interviewed the children who travelled from Guangdong at our hotel. (Martina, Blake, Lorie, Amy, and Zack) They were right down the hall from us!!! Martina is a tiny, sweet, gentle angel. She really got to all of us. Amy is a FIREBALL! The biggest ham Ive ever seen. I think that girl is going to be the next American idol! She loves the stage and is an incredible dancer!!! She is a total cuddle bug and LOVES having her photo taken. She is always jumping in front of the camera. (Quiet families BEWARE!!!) Blake and Zack are peas in a pod. They are always together. Both are sweet, outgoing, kind and extremely loving toward each other, their nannies and the girls. Lorie is shy and first and quickly warms up. She is sweet and kind. She also loves to dance and perform and takes Amy's lead often, while Martina quietly watches and smiles for a while before then joining in as well.. You really should all see the dance routine they did. It was amazing.

Today- we did interviews with the kids all morning, while they did arts and crafts we brought. They painted masks, painted their own jewelry boxes, made jewelry, and played with play-doh. They loved it! The interviews were extremely emotion and we had to take a few breaks to compose ourselves... Basically, EVERY child asked for a family of their own, Toby asked me to "promise" and "guarantee" that I would find a "family to love him", and Kenny asked me if I had any children... This led to a conversation where I showed him pictures of my Charlie and Dani. After studying the photos for over a minute quietly, he asked me if they could be his brother and sister... THAT IS WHEN I TOTALLY LOST IT...

Aleda, Ali and I all say this is one of the most incredible and emotional experiences of our life. Just so you all know, we made only one promise to each and every child... That we would share with our families how wonderful they all are and try our best and our hardest to find them the family they deserve.

I will talk about some more kids each day becuase I have so much to say about every one. Also, instead of 39, we had 42. We had the two 12 year old girls I told you about and another little boy (already with an American name) called Caleb. He just turned 7, is adorable and smart as a whip. He also speaks some English and yelled at the translator's help at times. His SN is he is missing most of his left hand. You would never know it though... Like most limb difference children, they know no better and simply adjust. He is a gift and I am attaching some photos of him.

We are so filled with so many emotions... In a word, these children are simply amazing. The whole time, we would forget that they are children with special needs and we would just see happy, beautiful, smiling, playing, well adjusted, incredible children. These kids get around by themselves, take care of themselves... I have to tell you, I was really scared at first as these needs seemed so overwhelming, and our staff was wondering how we would ever find them families. I am convinced now that when people see these children playing and talking and dancing and running, you will realize that there is nothing to fear. I think these children are an incredible gift to anyone who is lucky enough to adopt them.

I ask anyone considering adoption to just take a look at these kids. You never know... Aleda and I will be happy to talk to you about questions... We will be writing up summaries of our observations, and I have already gotten a lot of paper medicals from CCAA. I also have tons of photo and video on each child so you may see for yourself what we see.

Please forgive me if I am all over the place, but my eyes are literally crossing as I type. I haven't slept more than 3-4 hours a night since I got here. Now that it is over, my thoughts keep racing.. "Who do I know that may love this child???"

I am going to go now, brush my toofers, and pray for these children and for us to find their families. Please take a look at our angels... You never know...

XOXO
Diana

Ali's Post

Hi Everyone!
As Diana has said, our schedule has been VERY busy, but the excitement and thought of seeing the children keep us going! So far, this experience has been one of the best of my entire life. A few post ago you read about Lu Lu, the little girl with down syndrome. I can honestly say that when she wrapped her arms around me the amount of emotions that ran through my body was something I've never experienced. I was scared, happy, sad, excited, nervous etc. all that the same time! It was INCREDIBLE and she instantly had my heart. Needless to say we were only there five minutes and I was already hysterical!

As for the children in Camp Ox, they are also soo amazing! These children are very well cared for and it shows. As a nanny myself, I can understand and appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into loving a child that is not your own. I admire these nannies so much and they are the ones we especially need to thank for taking such good care of these children!

As, Diana said we have TONS of pictures and can't wait to share them with you all!
Keep reading and keep spreading the word about these children. I hope all of you are falling in love with them just as I am!

-Ali

My girls...

Please pass the word about these beautiful girls... No time but I have TONS of photos..

Internet is up!

I am going to have one heck of a cell phone bill, but Carl walked me through fixing my connection!!!! It JUST came up and I have to be out of here in an hour... Timing has been like this the entire trip, but we are loving it!!!

I didnt realize how big this was to CCAA. There was quite a reception! Dr Lu (CCAA Director) and MANY other officials there, including civil affairs... These people are all incredible!!!

No time for an update, but here are some pictures. THis is one of the most incredible experiences of our lives....

Also, there are 3 VERY special older girls here. THey are perfectly healthy, BEAUTIFUL, and talented. (They dance and do gymnastics!) Also, Miranda on the list is so special..... She takes care of all the little ones and signs to them. She wants to be a sign language teacher when she grows up. The all greatly desire to have a family and will age out soon. They are not part of the 39 Ox children, but have participated in all our activities. They personally went up to Dr. Lu yesterday and asked if MAA could try to find families for them. CCAA then came to us. I am absolutely in love with these girls adn MAA is committed to find them homes. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THESE 12-13 YO HEALTHY GIRLS.... I have tons of photos and videos of them, and every other child.

They are the first three pictures. (Ali and I are the clowns!)

Many blessings,
Diana

Camp Ox Day 1

This is Diana's husband Carl and I am posting for her because she's having problems connecting to the internet from Tianjin. She called in this post to me via cell phone. She told me to tell you that the day was incredible, the kids are incredible and she can't wait to share their information with all of you. She is sorry to disappoint those of you who are closely following, but is currently unable to upload any pictures or video. They are returning to Beijing tomorrow night and will have some pictures uploaded by then if they can work out the technical difficulties.

Thanks for following and thanks for the prayers!

OMG- one actually uploaded!!!

We are in Tianjin!!!

This has to be a short post as we are SO TIRED and have a big day tomorrow- actually it starts in less than 6 hours, but.... We made it!!! We met with the orphanage director, had dinner with some orphanage staff and CCAA, and got a bit of a chance to peek at the kids.

We were bracing Ali before we got there that there are always 1 or 2 that get in your heart and always 1 or 2 that pick you. The first child I saw was Shayne. He is just incredible... He saw me in the hall and stopped and waved.... I went down the hall a bit to see if he peeked again, and a nanny comes walking with a beautiful down syndrome girl. I went up to her to say hi. By that time, Ali was following behind me. As I walked toward "Lulu", she walked toward me, put her arms out, and went right past me into the arms of Ali!!!! Lulu hugged her, wrapped her legs around her, kissed her and stroked her hair. All of us just went hysterical, especially Ali. It was a moment we will never forget and unbelieveably, one we caught on video. (Too big to upload but I will try to cut all my videos down)

These kids are amazing!!!!!!!!!!! I met a few today. Dusty can talk! (the info we got said deaf and mute), Cole is just adorable, Derrick is so sweet and shy, I can't tell if a little guy I saw was Lucas.... Also Shayne... Another DOLL!! We will meet them all tomorrow, but just got a bit of a bonus today.

We also spent a lot of time with Martina, Amy, Zack, Blake and Lorie, the children from Shenzhou. Those kids are so full of life and energy!!!! They took turns one after the other dancing and singing for us in the hotel room. Martina and Lorie were a bit shy at first, but Amy is a TOTAL HAM!!!! THey all gave us hugs, kisses, and talked to us in ENGLISH!!!! THey are learning it and are very impressive!!!
Please take a look at them on the yahoo group. You will not believe how cute they are!!!!

Ive been on this blog for over an hour trying to upload video, but sorry to say that they are not working. I think they are too big. I will try tomorrow with photos too!

This is honestly one of the most incredible experiences in my life. I cant wait to share more with you all....

We will be at the camp all day tomorrow until very late, but I promise pictures then!!!

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Diana