Hi and beautiful Haitian girl

Hi all- I am posting this message for my friends at Kentucky Adoption Services. They are in need of a family asap for a beautiful little girl in Haiti.

Please contact Emily at the address below if you are interested. THANK YOU!

As for China, it is official.... WE ARE GOING BACK THIS SUMMER!!!! YAHOO! Please stayed tuned for updates as we get them!

As for Ox, people are still asking about our kids every day! We will not rest until they all have families!!!!

Blessings,

Diana

*************************

Kentucky Adoption Services is seeking a family for Bernadine (born on 10/9/07) in Haiti. Her mother relinquished her rights as she is raising five other children and does not have the resources to parent Bernadine. We are needing to match Bernadine with her forever family ASAP. If you are interested in receiving additional information, please contact our office at 270-684-2598. We have additional photos and medical labs available.
Thank you,

Emily-- Emily Shellhorn, MSWDirector of Missouri OfficeKentucky Adoption Services, Inc.http://www.blogger.com/

Camp Ox Update- One month later!

Hi all! Hope everyone is doing great! We are incredibly busy here but are enjoying every moment as our kids are finding homes and we are basking in the glory of doing God's work!!!

I know things have been quiet. A few wonderful families have been on me to keep the blog and excitement going. To those wonderful individuals, I say a big THANK YOU! I am so overwhelmed but do understand the need to remain proactive in our search for families for these children.

As of today, I am happy to announce that Shayne, Dusty, Randy, Tiffany, Hope, Vince, Kellie, Martina and Cole have all been matched with their forever families. Caleb, Tristan, and Gretchen are also on hold as we await their medicals and review of their files. So, one month later, there are most likely 12 children (most older!!!) who hopefully will be matched and home within the next 6 months. It is all so exciting. I think I have been too busy to sit and take it all in until just now. I have shivers, as we have literally have fallen in love with all of them and am so happy for them and their families!

There are also many children who families have asked about. To those families, whatever you need to help you arrive at your decision, let us know! To those who have been following along, I beg you to please advocate for these children. Many are older and only have limited time. Other have needs that would be so much better addressed in the states. All of them just want to have a family of their own. It is so hard to describe, but I literally hear their voices in my dreams... "Please, Nanny, find me a family. Give me your word. Give me a guarantee," (Toby) to "I just want someone to love me" (Tiffany and Vince), to "Can they [my children] be my brother and sister?" (Kenny) These are words that I will never forget as long as I live, and our agency is committed to working as hard as we can to help bring these children into loving homes.

Please spread the word about our angels. We NEED to find them families.

So, here is my challenge to all of you. (Thank you Maggie!!!)
Please tell 5 friends about these angels. Please ask them to do the same. The more people that know about these children, the better...

Please post to 2 groups about these children. Please share the link to our yahoo group and to the photos.

Please pray that each and every child will find the loving home they deserve....

On another note, CCAA is very happy with the success of the camp thus far. While in China, we met with them several times and discussed holding these camps annually. Last week, our China In-Country coordinator received a request from CCAA that we come back this summer. (GULP!) We are currently digesting this as we do not want to take the focus off of the Ox kids and I don't want Sara bald from stress if we leave again so soon. CCAA said that these children will be younger and possibly more minor SNs which may mean more kids will come home quicker. YAY! However, we would also need to fundraise like crazy (about $10,000- last time we used funds from the Charitable contribution fund).

So, here is the deal, I have been looking into several fundraising options. A client who has a business doing fundraising has also graciously offered to help. I will be rolling out some fundraisers in the next 2 weeks. (Things you buy where MAA gets a portion of the proceeds). Another client is going to do a Creative memories photo book of Camp Ox that will be for sale. She will also complete life books for any family that wants them. We also will be doing a slide show/movie of Camp Ox which will be for sale. The MAA movie of all our China families are also for sale, along with Camp Ox Tshirts we had made for the kids in China. So lots coming. If we can raise the money, we will most likely do this. I will keep you posted in the weeks to come, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you have any other ideas to fundraise. I am totally open to things where families could share a portion of the proceeds with MAA such as Mary Kay, Candlelight, Jewelry companies, etc. This way there will be more options for familiies wishing to help. Please send me your ideas as I will be rolling this out soon.

We are thrilled from the support of our families, friends and CCAA and are so excited for these children and the children we can help in the future. However, again, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE advocate for the Camp Ox kids. Every child deserves a home. If you are interested in a child, but do not think you can complete an adoption due to needing a waiver or finanical help, CONTACT US ANYWAY. We will do all we can to help.

Thanks everyone so much for everything! I also promise I will be better with the posting! ;)

Diana

Somebody STOP me!!!

OK- CCAA has sent a lot of the medicals... AWE-SOME~!!!! This means we are closer to getting a lot of these kids home.

However, like an addict, I started fishing on the shared list again.... There are 12 HEALTHY OLDER CHILDREN ON THE LIST!!!!!!!!!!! Here are 3 I fell in love with.

The two girls are born in October 1997 and March 1998.

This adorable healthy boy was born May 2000.

Age is the only documented special need....

Please let me know if you are interested in these children. I can share info with families who have submitted an info sheet. I would need an official MAA application and fee to "lock" either of these files. Families would then have 3 months to submit a dossier through MAA.

Families wanting us to search for them may submit a family info sheet and MAA application.

But there are 9 other healthy children too!!!! If you are interested in an older child, please contact me with any questions. Diana.MAA@comcast.net

I am so excited about these kids!!! Thanks!

Love and blessings,

Diana

Photos from Ox

Hi all! All of the photos from our trip are up on shutterfly. You can access them at
http://oxcamp.shutterfly.com/ The password is maaoxcamp

I am still sorting through video.

I am anxious to pour out all my thoughts to you but find myself too preoccupied at this point with finding families. Every one of these children's faces is forever imprinted on my mind.... my prayers are that they will all be adopted in the US and be able to come visit us some day with their new families!!!

Please email Sara or me if you are interested in any of these children.
Diana.MAA@comcast.net
Sara.MAA@comcast.net

Thank you so much!!!

Love and blessings,
Diana


P.S. Photos attached are Brad and Carrie; Toby; and Ali and I with Kenny, Gretchen and Toby. Toby was the one that asked me to "promise" and "guarantee" that I would find him a family. Kenny was the one that asked me to adopt him to my family. No one has yet asked about any of these children (expect Gretchen who has several families waiting to review her medicals). All of these children are waiting and praying for families!!!!!!!!! Please take a look at these angels. They are SO VERY SPECIAL!!!!!

Aleda's Angel- Down syndrome baby girl

Hi- I just posted this message to our yahoo group, but wanted to show
photos of this very special angel. Aleda fell absolutely in love with
her while Tianjin, and CCAA has allowed us to find her a family!!!

Here is the message in full.... Thanks!!!


MAA has been given the opportunity by CCAA to place an infant girl with
Down Syndrome. We met her while in China. She is beautiful and happy
and we will have medicals on her soon. I will post her photos on my
blog and when we have her official referral, we will post to this
list. We would love to get her home asap, so interested families,
please let us know.

We are also officially on the shared list, so please contact us if you
want us to search for a certain type of child. Many children (younger
especially) must have families with dossiers already submitted through
our agency. However, many toddlers and older children have 3-6 months
to submit a dossier. This means we may already start searching for
families with an application and SN preference sheet into MAA. This
will give you a chance to completed your HS and I800A approval while we
find your child.

Please contact Sara Lang if you are interested. Sara.MAA@comcast.net

Many thanks,
Diana

WE ARE HOME AND IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Hi all- I am so happy to tell you all we are safe and sound and resting in our own homes. This trip was literally the trip of our lifetime, and we are proud to tell you that CCAA has already asked us to host another camp!!!!

I am excited to get to work tomorrow and to begin finding homes for these children. Again, if you are interested in a particular child, please send Sara your family info sheet asap. We will begin going through everything tomorrow, sending medicals and "matching".

I also didn't previously announce this as I wasn't sure it would go through, but MAA, along with Bridge of Love Adoption Services (Travel and Translation part of CCAA) will be providing a unique opportunity for families to participate in a similar experience to what we just went through. No details yet, it will basically be a cultural/homeland/humanitarian tour. Like a regular cultural tour, there will be a fee per person, but you will receive a donation receipt for a portion of the cost(to write the cost off your taxes) for each person. Sound good? It gets better...

You will spend 1-2 days in a particular orphanage meeting the children, holding the babies, and doing some type of humanitarian project for the orphanage/orphans. This will be much like what you all just experienced through us. The orphanage will also prepare a show/activity to show you about them... Much like our talent show!!!

This trip will cater to those interested in adoption, those wishing to show their adopted children their homeland, humanitarian/religious groups, or just regular travellers. There will be a little for everyone. We are also looking at possibly doing breakout sessions... For example one day half of the people will go to CCAA, while those not interested in adoption can do another tour.

We are thrilled about this opportunity and being able to work with Bridge of Love and hope to give you all a taste of the most incredible experience of our lives!!!!

We are looking to set up these tours on an ongoing basis, but hope to do the first trip later this year. Please email me if you are interested and I promise to post more details soon.

I will be posting more about our trip and more children very soon. Just need to catch up on a little sleep right now. This was literally one of the busiest and best weeks of my life.

More soon!!!

Diana

Gary

Gary is 12 yeas old and is articulate and happy. Gary's SN is a cornea macular blockage in his left eye. Like Wayne, he has no problem getting around and taking care of himself. He loves to build and create things. He loves playing with legos and singing. He is a poet, and loves to memorize and recite ancient Chinese poems. You saw the stage in the room where we are, but what didnt see is the big screen behind it and the multi-media system including a karoake machine for the kids!!

Gary is a very good boy and is very neat. He prides himself on a tidy space and enjoys household chores. He wants to be a policeman when he grows up because he wants to help people.

Gary loves to be with his friends and said his best friend is Jimmy too. (About 5 kids named Jimmy as their best freind). He has a friend that was adopted by a US family, and asked me if I could find him a family too.

He is a sweet and kind boy who is easy going and laid back. He is so kind that he volunteered to by Tammy's dance partner when she couldn't find another girl. He is very thankful and constantly expressed gratitute to us for being there.

(These kids are all just amazing!)