Meet the children of Camp Ox!

Meet our angels!!!! We are currently at T minus 2 days until we leave for China... Our flight leaves Saturday morning to Newark, NJ, then we head to Beijing that afternoon!!! After some R&R, we will spend 2 days with CCAA, see some sights, shop (YAY!), and head over to Tianjin!

If you haven't done so already, please visit our yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MAAWC/ We currently have posted as much info as we have on each child. Of course, we will be bringing back info while we are there! If you are able and willing, please consider bringing home one of these children. This is possibly their last opportunity as they will not be posted to the online list. (For my non-adoption friends, I will translate our "adoption-speak" at a later time...

Thanks for reading and I will be writing again soon!

Love,
Diana

A Personal Post- Happy Birthday Dani!

Many of you may remember my 4 month labor last year which ended on 2/3/08... Yes, can you believe it? My little angel, Danielle Aleda is 1 year old today! Just a pic to share of the birthday girl!

Also, thought you may enjoy the photo of my son, Charlie as well. I've been a bit rushed and uptight the last week or so... In an effort to kill his bathing procrastination tactics, while I was getting his clothes for the day, I yelled, "Charlie, you better get in that bath right now or your in big trouble!"

I guess he REALLY didn't want to get in trouble...

Kids are so funny, arent they?

Schedule for Camp Ox!!!

CAMP OX SCHEDULE

Hi all! Here is our schedule for the Ox camp! We are so excited!!!

Feb 12th
8:30-9:30
Opening Ceremony & Parties speech
Please help me! They want me to give a speech! UGH!

9:30-11:30 1. Self- Introduction (1 minute each child)
1. We will be taking copious notes and recording these intros for possible families.

2. Overview of U.S.-Story time with Aleda
*Aleda, once an elementary school teacher, spent the last several weeks researching
China and has written a children’s book celebrating our two cultures. Sara has
also made a coloring book for the kids with photos celebrating our countries.

3. The living situation in U.S. of adopted children
*We will be showing two films created by MAA families who have adopted Chinese children. “Journey to Katie Mei” and “Jacob’s Story” will be shown. We will have lots of tissues on hand! (God bless and many thanks to Lisa and Christen for sharing your journeys!!!) There will be a question and answer period after each film.

11:30-12:30 Lunch

1:00-3:30 Children Talent Show
We hear the kids have been rehearsing for us for weeks!!! We are so excited!

4:00-5:00 Interactive activity (MAA)
Diana and Ali will be dressing up as clowns (No comments please! ;) )
and will be playing games with the children (Pin the tail on the Ox, “Freeze
dancing” (You have to freeze and be still when the music stops), and others! After, we will be doing arts and crafts including painting wooden jewerly boxes and decorating a photo frame that tomorrow we will fill with the photo of each child with the clowns! We will also be making jewelry and having treats from a piñata!!!

5:30-6:30 Supper

7:00-9:00 Communication & Evaluation This is where we will get to spend one-on-
one time talking to each child. We have an interview form ready and will be learning as much as we can about each child!

Feb 13th
8:30-11:30 Communication & Evaluation This will be time to finish our interviews
with each child, or for more one-on-one if possible. When done, the kids have more
play time with us!

8:30-11:30 Play room (MAA) Today we will be decorating their boxes they painted yesterday and will get to put their photos in the frames they made! We also will make more jewelry for their boxes and play with Play-doh!!!

11:30-12:30 Lunch

1:00-2:00 Movie (MAA) This is the slide show that my dear hubby
has been helping me with!!! It is only going to be about 30 minutes but will defintely leave an impact!!! These will be available to anyone who wants to buy
one!!! All proceeds go to these children. Thanks to all who contributed photos!

2:30-4:30¬ Closing Ceremony, Performance & Group Photo
Another performance from the kids. We can’t wait!!! It will be so sad to say goodbye!

Hope this helps to get all of you excited as we are!!!

Love,
Diana

Please help Camp Ox!

4 More Angels in Camp Ox!

Cole

Lucas

Tristan

Derrick

Hi all!

It is Monday afternoon (almost) and I just got a wonderful surprise from China! They sent the pics of the 4 additional boys that will be attending our Camp Ox! I am just in love!

Anyway, here they are!!!

Cole (M)
1/20/2004
(5 years)
This child’s pediatric examination found no obvious abnormalities.
Development on par with same age healthy peers.
Attending Institute’s kindergarten

Lucas (M)
3/20/2004
(4 years)
This child’s pediatric examination found no obvious abnormalities.
Development on par with same age healthy peers.
Attending Institute’s kindergarten

Tristan
3/20/2005
(3 years)
Speech development delayed; ability to distinguish color poor.
Currently, intellectual development, motor development on par with same age healthy peers.
Attending Institute’s kindergarten

Derrick (M)
1/28/2004
(5 years)
Congenital cleft lip and palate; post-repair surgery.
Development on par with same age healthy peers; speech ability relatively poor.
Attending Institute’s kindergarten

I will be getting medicals of all the children as well as TONS of photo and video. Interested families are urged to submit an application to MAA asap and begin the I800a process. Please see waiting child procedures on our website if you have any questions. Interested families, please contact Sara Lang.

Thanks so much!!!!
Diana

Can you believe it? IM BLOGGING!

For those of you who know me well, Im sure youre just scraping your chins off the floor! YES, I am blogging! (This is actually very empowering! Emma- can you believe I even did this myself??)

I warn you now, I am far from technically saavy, but this is my best shot at making you all a part of this trip! Also, I am not a writer. I would much rather chew on rocks than write, but I feel that this is too important not to share, so please bear with me! If it wasnt for the love, support, and prayers from all of our families, this opportunity to meet these incredible children would never be possible.... Thus, I invite you... Please share Camp Ox with us!!!

Aleda Madison, our awesome intern from last semester-Allison Wager, and yours truly, will all be making the incredible trek to China just six short days from now... I am so exited I can hardly contain myself. At the same time, I am scared to death... You see, the last time I was in China was in 2004, and that was pre-children!!!! I hate the thought of being away from my two babies, but as my 3 year old, Charlie, put is so eloquently, "You have to go hug the boys and girls who don't have any mommies and daddies". If that didnt already break my heart, his next question was, "Can I come too?" Thank God for Skype (we can talk via computer for free) and to my awesome hubby for going out and buying a webcam for me! I can now have the best of both worlds!!!

Just to recap, over the last few months, we have been scampering to get ready for this trip. I want to put a heartfelt thank you out there to everyone who has been helping us. (This covers everything from not ringing my neck for not returning calls right away, sending pictures, dropping stuff off for the kids-Thanks Rosemary!- and praying for us. Also, a VERY special thank you goes out to Christen and Lisa for sharing such a special, personal part of their lives with us so we can show CCAA and these children what life here is all about . I am in awe of both of you- your talent and story telling is simply incredible! Thank you so much for taking the time to help us show adoption in such an incredible light!!! Words are not nearly enough....

I will be posting a detailed schedule of our trip over the next few days so you can look out for waht is happening. Plan is that I will do a blog update each night! (I PROMISE I WILL TRY!!!) However, the big camp is actually scheduled for Thursday and Friday (2/12 and 2/13) so make sure to check in to see all the pics of the kids!

As many of you know, in addition to meeting up with CCAA, this trip is a humanitarian trip,as well as a chance to meet and interact with these children in an effort to help them find a forever family of their own! Sara will be busy holding down the fort (office) for us, but if you find yourself wanting to open your heart to one of these angels, please contact her asap.

In addition, we know the economy is awful, but we are going to give these kids the time of their lives!!!! Initially, we wanted to fundraise, but CCAA had some special requests and we found ourselves too busy preparing to raise funds, and thus, the entire trip has been funded out of the general account. In recent years, this was the norm, but with temporary Hague putting the business on hold as well as the closing of Guatemala, times are tough. Dont worry, we are not going anywhere! (Not anytime soon, anyway...) but if you can please find it in your hear to help us with this mission, we would be eternally grateful. All donations are 100% tax deductible and we promise (and you will see), that all funds are going directly to the children, their orphanage, and to CCAA to continue to sustain them. Please give anything you can... even if is is $5. And if you feel this is a worthwhile cause, please pass this message on, and invite others to share this journey with us. We thank you so much for your support!

Well, I guess that is it for now. I will be posting more info on what we will be doing over the next few days, so please stay tuned and keep checking back! We ask you all for your prayers for a safe and successful trip. We cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love and blessings,

Diana