The Random Ramblings of Samm Diep

Day 1 of Camp & Pix

(written 11:10p.m., September 1, 2007)

It’s amazing how dependent we’ve become on the internet. Here I am, 100 miles from home, in the middle of the wilderness, opening this Word document to draft this post, knowing there is absolutely no wireless reception and internet connection but yet somehow I still can’t help but to instinctively try to open Firefox (that’s what I’m supposed to use now instead of Internet Explorer, says Mike).

As I lay here, completely wiped out at the end of an incredibly eventful Day 1 at camp, I reflect upon the genuine excitement from me and my campers when I saw them again, the tiredness in my shoulders from carrying my backpack around all day, my bloated belly caused by the what must’ve been 15 pound cafeteria refueling with a bonus pint carton of chocolate milk, the weariness of my legs from deciding to walk four miles to and from camp from our cabin for the Saturday Night Social in hopes to burn off some of that dinner, the aching in my back from hunching over for two hours while working the face painting booth at the social, and the many more aches and pains I’m looking forward to acquiring this weekend.

A sense of home and security is something many of us have and may take for granted. The camp this year was full when the record breaking 375 families signed up within the first 10 minutes of the registration window opening. Families traveled from New York, California, Texas, and various other US states to afford their Chinese adopted child(ren), usually daughter(s), the opportunity to have this experience.

At camp, some of these kids are forced to be away from their adopted parents for the first time ever. Many of them were adopted from orphanages and have already experienced at age two, three, and four the anxiety of being separated from the only family they know. Chinese Camp encourages them to build relationships with other kids just like them. Many of these relationships last 10+ years.

Without having been adopted by an American family, I could never begin to imagine what it must be like to know that you look different from your parents and siblings and, for some, have haunting memories of a less pleasant time living in an orphanage. How many of us can relate to that? I cannot. All I can do is be grateful for the valued sense of family love and security my mom has always offered me. I’ve never had to feel doubt or abandonment.

Now, fortunately, these kids don’t have to either.

More on Day 2 to come. Here's the online photo album:

posted by Samm @ 9/04/2007 12:23:00 AM