Chinese Heritage Camp

The best laid plans…
I had such high hopes for the Chinese Heritage Camp held up in Winter Park. It’s a national endeavor but based in Denver. All the families have children adopted from China or Taiwan and possibly caucasion siblings. The kids are broken into groups with counselors and learn all about Chinese culture as well as some art therapy sessions with professionals to start talking about their adoption. The parents have volunteer assignments and sessions of their own too. There are some on mah jong, tea of China, navigating racism on behalf of our children, panel discussions, etc.

Well our plans to play mah jong together and sip tea before some in depth discussions on adoption and how to mitigate or foresee some of the issues that Lucy might face, fell flat. The kids had their first three days of school before leaving and with it the exhaustion of new sleep hours, long days and just plain change. I did not foresee Lorna’s trepidation at being the only white kid in the group. She was so afraid and I just did not see that coming. Kai had a bit of the same too, plus he just isn’t ready to jump into the arms of strange, but kind, counselors.
I stayed with Lorna all the first day and Will with Lucy and Kai. So we did participate the first day and Lorna learned a huge lesson on what it feels like to be a minority – something Lucy does 24/7.

When we arrived in the cafeteria that morning, I just looked around at all these mixed race families, these stunning girls and boys, and burst into tears. I literally hurried back to the table with my oatmeal, put my face in my hands and cried. It’s just so amazing to imagine all these babies abandoned in parks, government doorways or busy markets. Helpless and abandoned as babes and here they are with Texan and Boston accents thriving, parents made happy, complete. It’s a beautiful thing! Adoption is such a life affirming, love affirming act. We humans aren’t so bad.

Lucy definitely was taking it all in – made some sweet friends in the little free time we had. I could see her scanning the rooms and just looking at all the faces and possibly pairings of faces – I wish I could know what she was thinking.

No one, probably except me, wanted to go back that night or the next day. So, Will and I decided to call it a camp, made reservations for a trail ride the next day, with swimming in the pool and a trip to some hot springs. Lucy would prefer to be with her whole family rather than a huge auditorium with strangers learning about the culture and language that is still a reminder of her recent past. We all had the best intentions, but we live and learn. It’s such a fine line between exposing her to her culture of birth and treading into some realities that she might not be ready for yet.

Flexibility…