Heart Camp

This year, for the first time, we attended Heart Camp, an event organized by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Heart Institute for pediatric cardiology patients and their families.  Heart Camp which starts on Friday and ends on Sunday is held at Camp Joy in Ohio and was host to 50 families (175 people) this year.  We opted for the Saturday only attendance which we found to be just right for us.  This year, camp was completely free of charge thanks to many generous sponsors.

We arrived at Heart Camp at 9:30 am, checked in and then helped the kids split up into their age groups.  Ella went with the 6-8 year olds who played games and did lots of physical activities.  We placed Emilia and Rex with the 3-5 year olds who went on a hike, played with bubbles, parachutes, toys, etc.  During this time, Craig and I could have attended a parent work shop, but we decided to stay with Rex and Emilia since they can be a bit challenging to manage in unfamiliar situations and by people who do not know them well.  We enjoyed spending time with them and a bunch of other special kiddos.

After these separate sessions, there was a group lunch (quite good and with allergy-friendly options) followed by four hours of free time during which families had access to much of what Camp Joy has to offer. We hit up the petting zoo, did tractor rides, made some arts and crafts, let our adventurous kids do the Swing-By-Choice multiple times, and Ella even did part of the rope course and zip line.

She loves tractors and all other large machinery.

This is Ella on the Swing-By-Choice.  You have to consciously let yourself go to make the first drop.  Rex loved this as well and did it four times, but we did not have him drop himself. Instead, we gave him some major pushes to go back and forth.

The weather wasn't great for a day in mid-May though at least it wasn't raining, but by 5:00 pm, we were ready for a hot dinner at the dining hall.  During the meal, we warmed up, refueled and chatted with others.  I think everyone was happily exhausted from the day's activities, but still saving up some energy for the dance from 7:30 to 9:00.  We hadn't intended to stay that late, but the kids had so much fun.  Rex danced practically the whole time.

YMCA with daddy

Throughout the day, we had many nice conversations with different families and even connected with another adoptive family.  Heart Camp was a lot of fun and we hope to be back next year.