AND We're Back!

Oh my goodness. This summer has been so busy and crazy with all five kids at home (except for a couple of church camps and a mission trip) but it's almost over and WE MADE IT! I have SOOOOOO much to blog about, not just every day stuff, but also all the things I learned at China Camp. For now, I will just share a little about China Camp, not the heavy stuff. That will have to wait until I have more time and can sit here and type to my heart's content. Too many interruptions during the day to get all that down and out of my system.

Every year our agency holds a heritage camp for each country they support adoptions with. Obviously, we go to China Heritage Camp. This was our first year to go WITH our baby girl from China. She was only in the nursery, but she was there with other children born in China (except for her big sister Carlie:). So, Carlie got to learn a little bit about being the minority and Avery wasn't the only black headed beauty in the room! Nicole was with other fifth graders and Ethan was a camper for the first time. He was so nervous, but found a new friend pretty quick and loved it after that. It was three days of going, going, going. So much fun meeting new faces and catching up with ones that are not so new.

Until I can jump into the meaty stuff I will just tell you this: it is truly the hand of God working to bring these children home. We adoptive parents and our support systems (family and friends who provide prayers, financial support, help while we travel, etc.) do our best to meet Him half way. It is a battle to bring them home, but so very much worth it. One of the things I learned was that not all children who are found have their 'finding ad' placed in the newspaper. The 'finding ad' is a little picture and brief description of a child that was found, and where they were found. This is the CC*A's way of making an effort to find their birth parents. The 'finding ad' is a requirement of the U.S. so that the child can be declared, ugh, abandoned and then adopted by someone in the U.S. (other countries may have this requirement, I don't know). Obviously, Avery had her finding ad placed in the newspaper and her birth parents or birth family did not come forward. Some children do not have a finding ad placed in the paper. I'm not sure who gets to decide who does and does not get a finding ad placed, but I would not want to be that person. My hopes are that those children are then adopted domestically.

My head was spinning after our parent session on Saturday of China Camp. More later . . .