Maonan project

Hi everyone,
I am cross posting from the Maonan Yahoo group below. I wanted to let all of you know that one of the moderators of the group is coordinating a project. She is creating a scrapbook to send to Maonan with pictures of Maonan adoptees. She is going to create the scrapbook digitally and we will have the opportunity to order copies. She is charging $5 per participating family to cover the cost of materials and shipping to the orphanage. Ordering copies of the albums will be extra. If you want to participate, I would suggest joining the Maonan Yahoo group or e-mailing her directly at Kristitolman@hotmail.com. To join the group, if you go to Yahoo, click on groups and then search for MaonanSWI. All she requires now is at least one photo, your child's Chinese and American name, birthdate and, I believe, city and state. She needs a total of 6 photos by Thanksgiving. Each child will be given a page in the scrapbook.

Good luck and I hope everyone continues to do well. Her full post is below.

Laura, Steve and Sara

Hi all,Many of you know that each year this group sends a scrapbook to Maonanas a way to show our gratitude for the care our girls received whilethere; to let the nannys see how much the girls have grown and to wishthem a happy new year.This year I'm going to do the scrapbook digitally. It will be printedusing 4-color offset printing with real ink on paper, just like anyhigh-quality book or magazine, and will be hardbound like a book.It will be very easy to participate and won't require any scrapbookingskill at all! :) I've done this twice for our travel group -- on amuch smaller scale -- and it's turned out really well.For the Maonan book, each child will be given one page (The max numberof pages in a book is 100 (50, 2-sided) and I'm hoping we'll have 100kids participate!) and the pages will be in order of birthdate --oldest to youngest.I will also need a cover photo so I'd welcome any ideas of how tochoose a photo for the cover. A random drawing for one child? Aphoto of China? The oldest child? A Chinese character for love orfamily? Please e-mail me or post any ideas to the group.So, here's what you need to do to participate:1. Select at least three, and up to six photos, of your daughter.Something to think about...the more photos you send, the smaller theywill appear on the page. However, even with six photos, you willdefinitely be able to clearly see them. Ideally, I think four photoslook best but the number you send is completely up to you.2. Make sure your photos are high resolution since they will beprinted. They should ideally be over 1.0 MB and anything smaller than.80 MB most likely won't work. (If you need help with this, pleasee-mail me.)3. One of your photos should be a referral photo or very early photoof your daughter to help the nannys identify her.4. Rename the files with your last name and a number so I don't getanyone mixed up. For example, Post1.jpg, Post2.jpg, etc. If you havemore than one Maonan daughter, please use an initial and last name.For example, MTolman1.jpg, MTolman2.jpg, etc.4. Depending on how many photos you send, one photo will likely bemore prominent. Please choose your favorite photo and label it asyourlastname1.jpg so I know which photo to "feature."4. Make sure your photos are in .jpg format.5. In the body of the e-mail please give me your daughter's fullChinese name, full American name and date of birth. For example, JinYing Chun, Michal Aline Ying Chun Tolman, 12/29/03.6. E-mail me your photos at kristitolman @ hotmail .com. You mostlikely will need to send these in several separate e-mails due tosize. Please try to send the majority of your photos at one time. Iknow that you'll take a great new photo and want to send it -- andthat's totally fine -- but it will help me if you can send the photosin batches. And yes, you can change your mind and "swap" photos.7. Your daughter's page will include both her Chinese and Americanname and her birthdate. It will not include the Chinese characters ofher name unless you send those characters in a .tif or .jpg file.This will then take the place of one photo.8. The cost to participate is $5 per child. This is to pay for twocopies of the book -- one to go to Maonan and one to be kept in caseof a Maonan girl reunion -- and the shipping to China. If I end upwith extra funds, which could happen if the participation is high,I'll donate the extra money to Love Without Boundaries for the MaonanBuilding Fund.You can send the money via check or via PayPal to the above e-mailaddress. A check should go to: 196 South Lawndale Avenue Elmhurst,IL 601269. The photo submission deadline is December 10th. This will give meenough time to lay out the whole book, have it printed and get itmailed to China before Chinese New Year on February 8th. BUT you canabsolutely start sending photos right now and I'd really appreciate itif you did!!Whew! Sorry for the long e-mail. Hopefully I've hit all the majorpoints. Let me know if you have questions. Also, there is a folderin the Photos section called "Digital Photo Album Samples" if you wantto get an idea of what the book will roughly look like. (The designmay be different but you'll get the idea.)Bring on the questions! :)Kristi