The 2012 Celebrate Bulgaria Adoptive Families Reunion is on the books. Everyone had a great time at Winton Woods Park this weekend and enjoyed connecting with other families. We shared many great conversations, memorable moments, and delicious food. The kids had fun playing with water balloons, visiting the splash park, going on a scavenger hunt, competing in Minute to Win It, doing crafts, riding bikes, playing soccer, writing in Cyrillic, dancing the horo, making smores, and so much more.
Yvonne and I would like to thank everyone for joining us. We had families from 14 states and representatives of eight different birth countries. We had families whose children are home, families in-between trips, and families waiting for their referrals. We appreciate everyone's help in making the event run smoothly and everyone's patience as we work out the kinks.
A very special thanks goes out to our sponsors this year: Hopscotch Adoptions, Inc., Tree of Life Adoption Center, Hands Across the Water Adoption Agency, www.AdoptiveFamilyTravel.com, Golden Rule Travel, Skip's Bagel Deli, and McDonald's. Their generosity permitted us to have some wonderful amenities this time around, like rented umbrella tables and chairs as well as delicious group breakfasts.
Information about the 2013 reunion will be published soon. We have decided to keep the location here in Cincinnati at Winton Woods. Please stay tuned for details and get ready for some new possibilities, like doing charitable work and going greener.
See you all in June 2013!
We had such a great time meeting all the kids and families! Can't wait to do it again next year. I I am on facebook if anyone wants to connect.
ReplyDeleteDonna Heffner DeLong.
Our son had such a great time--it's been really good for him to connect with other Bulgarian kids! He had such a good time camping, I already booked the tent site really close to the cabins. Would be very much willing to camp in someone's front lawn and pay you to put us closer but being in the woods like we are is nice, too. Much thanks to Yvonne and Vivienne!!!!! Kay and J.C.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for coming out to our 2nd Event. To think this all started when a couple of familes (meaning 4-5 families) talked about camping for a weekend. So one day when I was home sick... I put it on the yahoo board, asking who would be interested and thus spawned the idea of having a weekend celebration.
ReplyDeleteI want to thank Viviane for reaching out that day and partnering to make this event successful... 2 years and 1,500 emails later... we have hosted over 30 different families combined. Thank you to Vivane's husband Craig for all his hard work in order to allow Viviane time to plan and direct all of the activities. Thank you to Shelley for making phone calls and getting our bagels donated for Sunday breakfast. Thank you to the sponsors! Thank you to all of you who kept an eye out for my little ones (and a thank you to my littles for good behavior choices)... I think this was an absolute smashing success. I look forward to nurturing the friendships that I have made in the past as well as the new friendships from this weekend.
As long as there is interest to continue this event I will continue to work hard to make it happen.
A few more thank yous... thank you to all of those people who jumped in and helped to set up, clean up, to direct kids activities, etc... Thanks families that stuck around and cleaned up the site and took down all the tables and chairs! Thank you Mark and Steven for being our grill masters on Saturday night! The Santor family for helping me Sunday evening with wrapping up the clean up and packing my van... Just thank you all for jumping in wherever help was needed!
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