We just wrapped up three amazing, fun-filled days at Dillon International’s annual China Heritage Camp. This was Piper’s first year as a “real camper” as she calls it. You have to be 4 years old to attend-but not our first year to attend.

We attended the parent workshops before we were even parents and this is the second year I’ve helped coordinate the Lower Camp for kiddos age 4 through 6. China Camp grabbed my heart that first year and never let go. Maybe because it’s more than just “camp.”

China Camp is for children adopted from China and their families to help them learn more about their Chinese heritage. Campers age 4 through 12 participate in language class, music, art, cooking, history, culture and martial arts.

And while there are the usual camp suspects – macaroni noodle crafts, teen counselors and camp songs – that’s not what this camp is really about.

It’s about not being the only Chinese kid in the room. It’s about being surrounded by Chinese kids in every room. It’s about not having to explain why your hair is straight or your eyes are different. Or why you don’t look like your parents. It’s about being with 240 other kids who know your story and just understand. It’s about relaxing and just being you.

It’s about learning your native language – the language you heard at birth, but maybe haven’t heard in years. And feeling a connection to your homeland. Even though it may very well be a place you don’t remember and have only seen in pictures.

It’s about learning that you aren’t so different after all. It’s about gaining strength, wisdom and tools to handle the inevitable taunts and the questions and the well-intentioned comments. It’s about rebuilding egos so you can go back out into the world and deal with the issues and demons you may be facing – externally…and internally.

It’s about being so tiny and feeling so scared and seeing a group of teen counselors who look just like you. Teenagers who are confident, strong and brave. And getting to know them. And liking them. And wanting to be like them.

It’s about having role models outside of Chinese restaurants.
It’s about performing a song in your native language with 35 of your new and old friends. It’s about dancing a traditional, centuries-old dance for your mom and dad. It’s about so much more than a red silk dress worn every Chinese New Year.

China Camp is about lessons and experiences I can only imagine. That’s because China Camp isn’t really about me.
China Camp is about my daughter.

Karen Szabo and her husband, Gary, adopted Piper from the Jiangxi Province in 2006. Szabo has been blogging for T-TownMoms.com since April 2009 as “Chinamom.”

Prayers for the Week:
-God, thank you for parents and children that come from different ethnic backgrounds. Thank you for the opportunity to love and respect different cultures.

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