Kazapalooza 2012

Kazapalooza..... it was all a blur.

Me and my cohorts at registration

I've been a planner for Kazapalooza (a kaz adoptive family reunion weekend) for three years but this was the first year as the Lead Planner and this time around it felt like I was never there.  Looking at all the great pictures on the web I see how much I missed as I ran (myself and my family) ragged trying to make certain the nearly 400 attendees of Kazapalooza 2012 had a good time. The result was my family and I never really got to enjoy much of Palooza.

Boo.

Saturday night family meltdown

I didn't get to visit with many of my friends this weekend and worse yet I did not have even a single hour of play time with my kiddos.  That part pretty much sucked.

Following several 5am starts, as many late nights and too much time apart, on Saturday night  we had some pretty ugly family meltdowns, (and yes it was mostly me).

Just keeping it real...at that point Kazapalooza did not seem worth it... though deep down I think I knew it was.

working the coffee and donut station Sunday morning

I reminded myself that it's just one year.  Next year I will make a point to actually enjoy the event as Planner and a guest too...my family deserves that much.

All that said I do take a lot of pride in how things turned out.  It seemed families had a truly good time and my heart swells when I see Nina reconnect with her Kaz pals-all of them beaming with BOTH Kazakhstan and adoption pride.



My favorite quote came by way of my (Soviet train travel) pal Emily (love her family dynamic-they are so dys-fun-ctionally similar to ours and I could totally imagine this conversation in my house).  She summed it up perfectly...

"This morning when my 7 year old said how much fun he had at Kazapalooza and my 4 year old shot him a look and said "You only get to go because of me. You weren't born in Kazakhstan, you were just born regular." I love love love how this weekend makes kids take the feeling different part of being adopted and transforms it into feeling special. ♥"

proud winner of the 6 and under sack races

The sense of pride and being special Kazapalooza offers our precious kids is good, really good.

Good enough in fact that I would do it all again.


There are a bunch of great pics and a recap of the weekend on the Kazapalooza Blog.



And for another take on why this event is worthwhile check out this great post by another mom...she's an uber cool china/kaz/virtual twin mom (got to love that!)

BY THE WAY I NEED VOTES ON TOP MOMMY BLOGS...SO SINCE YOU ARE ALREADY DOWN HERE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST WHY NOT CLICK THE "VOTE FOR ME" BUTTON.  JUST SAYIN...THANKS!!



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