Sunday, November 8, 2009

From Belgrade Mt. to Belgrade Serbia

Bella now` walking with her walker.
Bella feeding herself.

Mommy carrying Bella in the airport , on our way home to the USA.

Mama meeting Magdalena~Bella. It was love at first sight.

Daddy meeting Bella , his little princess.

It is still hard to believe it has been one full year that we boarded our flight in Belgrade Montana on our journey to meet our little princess now known as Bella. Our travel up to this point has been limited to Montana and surrounding states and always by car.Gary's flying experiences have been a few short one hour flights from Butte,Mt to Salt Lake City, and Jody had never set foot on an airplane before this journey. We were both very nervous about leaving our other kids behind and traveling to an unfamalier destination half way around the world.We would look at each other every once in a while , and I know we were both thinking the things, are we going to be safe, and what in the world are we getting ourselves into. Other than having to run thru every airport on the way to our next flight and Jody's motion sickness the whole flight everything went pretty smooth and uneventful all the way to Serbia.Upon our arrival we were met at the airport by Vlado (the gentleman we rented our apartment from),shortly after arriving at our apartment we were priviliged to meet his wonderful wife Svetlana. This couple quickly put our minds at ease and made us feel welcome in their country, they became our friends immediately and were very very helpful to us during our two week stay, they showed us everything we needed to know to live in their city and we can't thank them enough for all they did for us.
Our meeting with the officials was very pleasant and the only thing we were uncomfortable with was the language barrier, but thanks to our facilitator and our lawyer translating for us we were able to get thru the meeting.After the meeting we were off to the orphanage to meet our newest daughter for the first time. When they handed Bella to her new mommy and daddy we both had tears in our eyes because we realized this was a real child we were holding and that we had just traveled halfway around the world to get her.Every day we visited Bella we could see the many changes she was going thru from the love of a mommy and daddy and how quickly she was bonding with us and us with her.The hardest part of the visit was having to say goodbye and leave leaving her behind, but we were counting down the days to when we would be able to take her home with us forever.

When we arrived home everyone immediately fell in love with her and there isn't a person yet that Bella doesn't like. She continues to grow and thrive every day and makes life very interesting at the Campbell home. Bella is going to be a demolition expert because she lkes to go thru the house disrupting everything in her path. Our Bella is the most hard headed and stubborn child we have ever met but we wouldn't want her any other way.She is now finally able to sit and snuggle with us and show affection. So all of her mischievous actions are quickly forgotten when we get one of her hugs and lick kisses and a smile that melts our hearts.Bella, we completely changed your world for you and yes you have changed ours too,but never once do we ever regret boarding that plane early one November day on our journey to get you.Bella we love you sooo much and we are blessed to have you as part of our family.

2 comments:

Zactly said...

Love your post Jody. I can't believe she has been home a yr. Time flies.
blessings,
Vickie

Missy said...

That's wonderful! A year already. Bella is just beautiful!