A HUSBANDS/FATHERS PERSPECTIVE

ADOPTION WAS SOMETHING VERY FAMALIER TO ME, THAT IS DOMESTIC ADOPTION. JODY AND I HAVE ADOPTED FOUR CHILDREN THRU THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM AND THEY ARE THE APPLES OF MY EYE, BUT WHEN THE SUBJECT OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION CAME UP I WAS VERY UNSURE OF THE WHOLE IDEA. WHAT STARTED OUT AS AN IDEA WITH JODY TURNED INTO SERIOUSLY LOOKING INTO THIS AS A WAY TO ADD TO OUR FAMILY. AFTER MONTHS AND MONTHS OF SEARCHING THE INTERNET AND SHOWING ME HUNDREDS OF PHOTOS OF CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WORLD SHE FINALLY MADE ME REALIZE THAT THIS WAS SOMETHING I REALLY WANTED TO DO. THRU HER SEARCHES SHE FOUND REECE'S RAINBOW AND ALL OF THE CHILDREN WAITING FOR FAMALIES AND THEN CAME THE TIME TO CHOOSE A CHILD AND MAKE AN OFFICIAL COMMITMENT TO BRING THIS CHILD HOME TO BE PART OF OUR FOREVER FAMILY. WE CHOSE A VERY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL WITH DS WHO WAS IN A BABY HOUSE IN EUROPE. THE PAPERWORK WAS STARTED AT THE FIRST OF THE YEAR AND THANK GOD FOR JODY WORKING DAY AND NIGHT TO GET IT ALL COMPLETE AND IN ORDER WE WERE FINALLY READY TO SUBMIT IT TO THE OFFICIALS OF OUR CHILD'S COUNTRY. AFTER THE PAPERWORK WAS SENT OFF I STILL WASN'T LOOKING FORWARD TO TRAVELING TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY FOR TWO WEEKS AND LEAVING OUR OTHER CHILDREN AT HOME, BUT WHEN WE HAD A CONFIRMED TRAVEL DATE ALL FEARS AND DOUBTS DISAPPEARED, THIS WAS REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN. ONCE WE GOT TO MEET OUR BELLA AND I GOT TO HOLD HER FOR THE FIRST TIME, IT MADE ALL THE WORK AND WAITING WORTH WHILE. SHE IS VERY ADJUSTED TO OUR FAMILY NOW AND TO WALK IN THE DOOR AFTER WORK AND SEE THE SMILE ON HER BEAUTIFUL FACE , MY HEART JUST MELTS. I LOOK FORWARD TO EACH NEW DAY WITH ALL THE KIDDOS AND THE ADVENTURES THEY BRING TO MY LIFE, AND IF YOU ASK IF I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER , MY REPLY WOULD BE YES IN A HEART BEAT. I LOVE MY WIFE AND CHILDREN WITH ALL MY HEART AND THEY ARE THE MOST PRECIOUS AND SPECIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD TO ME. AS FAR AS ADOPTION ,EITHER DOMESTIC OR INTERNATIONAL IT IS THE MOST WONDERFUL THING THAT CAN HAPPEN FOR FAMALIES AND I FEEL VERY BLESSED TO HAVE HAD THE PLEASURE TO ADOPT OUR CHILDREN.

I ALSO WANT TO SAY THAT A BIG PART OF MY DECISION TO ADOPT INTERNATIONALLY WAS BECAUSE OF THE URBAN'S ADOPTION OF BABY AVA AND JOHN'S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR HER FOR WHO SHE IS NOT FOR WHAT SHE CAN OR CANNOT DO. I STILL VISIT THE URBAN'S BLOG EVERY DAY TO WATCH AVA'S PROGRESS AND HOW SHE BLOSSOMS ALL THE TIME.

Please help Lou & Stew bring their little girl home soon..

PLEASE HELP US BRING HER HOME
This a from one of our on-line friends, Lou they need your help to get enough funds to go back to get their little girl. She will need heart surgery as soon as she gets to the states. But they are short 2,000.00 for the 3 week stay in country to get their beautiful little girl. This little girl needs to get to the US to get her little heart fixed to be able to live longer. .

This is what Lou has to say!!!

As I mentioned yesterday, on our initial trip to Eastern Europe we were forced to use our entire adoption fund to be able to return home. My return trip is planned for 1/16-1/31 and I am starting at square one. Thanks to a very generous family, my plane ticket has been covered (thank-you, thank-you, hugs, hugs). I still need to raise about $2000 more to cover the rest of the expenses. I only have 2 weeks. I will be jumping at every opportunity to work overtime at my job, but for that I only have this one week coming up, as the pay period ends this Friday. So I decided to try to hold yet one more fundraiser. With your prayers and help this one last time, I have faith that everything will once again come together. Please help me spread the word if you also have a blog site. I will be randomly gifting one lucky donor with a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate. Please keep us in your prayers in the coming weeks as we prepare to bring our little miss home to her anxiously waiting family, and to much needed medical care.

Bella got to meet her Aunties and cousin Kyle

~Auntie Linda & Bella ~

~Mckenzie and her snowman~

~Daddy and Bella~ Bella can say daddy , but today she also was saying and signing daddy. Boy was her daddy so proud of her.You couldn't get the smile off of his face. She is really very smart, it doesn't take her very long to learn new things. We are so proud of her. She also can say Mommy and sign it sometimes. But not like she can sign daddy. She will sign daddy over and over. Bella is really blossoming now that she is home .

~ Auntie Maddy and Bella~ Bella got to meet her aunties today. She had a good time with them and her cousin Kyle. Auntie Maddy had Bella clapping with her, and Auntie Linda had Bella laughing it was really cute. But do you think we could get it on the camera. No way, we are not quick enough.

~Auntie Linda,Bella,Deztany, McKenzie and cousin Kyle in the back. All the kiddos loved there visit with there Aunties and cousin. Aunties Linda & Maddy & cousin Kyle brought a new coat and pair of pink pants to Bellla. They are so cute, thank you Aunties and Kyle. We hope to see you again soon.

` Daddy feeding Bella~
~Opening gifts with family~
Megan and Deztany opening their gifts~
~Bella and her big sister Megan~ Megan is about 8 months older than Bella, she loves Bella so much.Megan told mom when she gets
BIG and moves out Bella gets to go live with her. I thought that was so cute ,she loves Bella so much .
I hope you all had a very good Christmas..Ours was great, lots of family and friends, Good food and did i say Family. We had 7~ seven of our kiddos home for Christmas. Our son Jake and his family couldn't make it to town. We have got a lot of snow and it still has been really cold here.
We love having a big family!!!! Yes , We have 8~eight children, and we would love more. We will have to see what happens next. The children got a lot of gifts , and we talked about what Christmas is about. We have been reading about Mary and Joseph having Jesus. I would love our children to know that Jesus was born on Christmas, and not just lots of gifts. Our grandson Camren~who is 41/2 years old~ told me on Christmas after dinner that he was going home to give one of his gifts to God for his birthday. I THOUGHT THAT WAS SO GREAT,he would give one of his gifts to Jesus.

Merry Christmas

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We all want to wish our Family and Friends` A very Merry Christmas to all. That is all of our on-line friends and R.R.Family, also. We want to thank everybody who helped us along on are journey to bring Bella home. We are so thankful to have her home for Christmas.It will be Bella and Aubrey's first Christmas.Aubrey is our newest grandaughter. We hope and pray all the children waiting for there forever families get to come home very soon. There families are waiting patiently for the perfect time to go to get them. We will be praying for all the children who need families to take care of them and love them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND HEALTHLY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

`Happy 26th Birthday Jake~

HAPPY 26TH BIRTHDAY JACOB JOSEPH!!! WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!!We hope you have a great day today. Jake is one of our older adult children and we love him sooo much...


Love all of us , Mom, Gary, and your little siblings.

~Please help the Newbold Family~

Please help Kristy and Rick Newbold if you can ..They are in country right now to adopt there little girl and just found out that they need two thousand more dollars to adopt her. Plus they will need two more round trip airfare tickets home because this country they are adopting from will be on holiday until some time in January.So they will need to fly back home and then go back to get there new daughter. They can't stay there for that long , because they have a little boy waiting at home for them with his grandma. They just adopted this little guy a few months ago and there little girls paperwork was not ready yet so they have to make many trips to get there adoptions done.
PLEASE HELP THE NEWBLOD FAMILY BRING HOME THERE NEW LITTLE DAUGHTER. They have been waiting some time to bring her home. Now with the added expense it is really hard on them and not looking very good that they could come up with these funds to do that.Plus they are in another country worring about all of this. If you can't help with funds please pray for them .Dasha's button is on the right of my blog~ just click on it and it will take you to the Newblods blog. You can read there story there or donate to them to help bring there daughter home.

THANK YOU FOR ALL PRAYERS AND HELP WITH FUNDS FOR THE NEWBOLD FAMILY..

Bella met her new Dr.

Bella got to go for her Dr. appt today . She got to meet Dr.Jill.Dr. Jill is a Pediatrician and she is great with the special needs children. So they are working on all of are refferals for ST,OT,PT, ALSO for all the blood work to start.Bella did have some blood drawn today. They will draw more in 2 weeks. Then start her immunizations, we will start all over on them. Then she will have an ultra sound on her heart and kidneys. She will go see the Pediatric eye Dr.,also a dietitian. Bella weighted a whopping 22lbs 6oz. That is after 3 weeks of pedi-sure and formula , baby foods~ fruits and veggies.She is a strong child. We had to help hold her down for them to draw blood. This little one is tough. Oh did i say how much we love her,we are so happy Bella is our daughter.
We talked about what Bella can do~ Well she is one busy little girl. She can crawl like crazy, she is pulling herself up on the couch and can stand up holding the couch. She also has taken a couple steps with mom and grandma holding her hands. She is learning how to hold a comb and trying to comb her own hair, it is so cute. When she wants you to comb her hair she will hand you the comb. Bella does look at us when we call her name, and she will come looking for us in the house. Today when dad and mckenzie where gone shopping, Bella crawled over to the window. She must have been looking for her daddy. Bella loves mommy but she is a daddy's girl. She gets so excited when her daddy gets home from work. She will hurry right to him.Yes her daddy loves that. Bella is starting to eat from a spoon, she will let us put a little bit of baby food on her tongue. If she likes it she will eat it . But if not she wipes it off of her tongue and lets you know that she didn't like it. She is learning new things everyday. Yes Bella does have an a mean streak,if she is jealous of one of the other children she will pull there hair or try to bite them. She also likes to grab her daddy by the face, but we think she is trying to bring his face to hers for a kiss. She does love to be kissed and hugged,and we are giving her lots of both. We are so greatful to have Bella home with us. Bella is over all doing wonderful with all of her family. Bella got a new hair cut and she is sporting earrings in her ears.They look so cute and she doesn't bug them yet. Bella's big sister Amber gave her a hair cut and also pierced her ears. Thank you Amber , Bella looks really cute.

~Three more of our grandchildren~

Evan ,Jenn & Adien~ Three of our beautiful grandchildren. They live three hours away from us , we sure do miss you guys. We love the new pictures.We hope Santa will be good to you guys this year. Tell your Mom & Dad Hello for us.
Evan ,Jenna & Adien got to meet their new auntie Bella~Magdalena.They just love her so much. Stay warm it is still really cold here. It was 20-below zero and that is without the wind chill. BRRRRR cold. North pole cold.

MAMA & BELLA snuggling

~MAMA & BELLA~
Bella fell asleep snuggling MaMa in the chair so of course mom had to sit there and hold her the whole time she slept. It was so nice to snuggle Bella for so long. She doesn't slow down to much , she is very busy all the time. She has a lot to check out in her new home. We sure love Bella Boo so much!!!!

~Megan & 5 buckets of pickled sunflower seeds~Thank you to auntie's Linda & Maddy . They bought these buckets of sunflower seeds for us. They know we love pickled seeds. There is 50 bags to each bucket. So we have 250 bags of pickled seeds, i will have plenty to be able to take with us camping all summer long. They also sent candy for the kiddos. Thank you so much Auntie's.

~It is very cold here in MT.~

It is very very cold here in MT, it is -36 below zero with the wind chill. Yes we are hibernating in the house for a few days. It is going to get colder the next few days. The temp without the wind is -8 below zero. It is suppose to get down to -40 to - 60 below zero the next few days.We are all getting colds including Bella,so it is going to be a take it easy weekend for us.

Dolores i wish we lived in the same town.I sure would love to go to your house and see that new baby and meet all the other children.Lucy Noel is very beautiful and she looks pretty healthy. Congrat's to your family..
Also Congrat's to all the waiting families to go to Serbia. They will get to go to get their little ones very soon. Jasmina you are so awesome, you do work miracles. We have so much "Faith " in you and J. We sure can't Thak You enough for all you have done for our Family.Magda~Bella is loved by all of us and she seems to love us all back. We sure got our Miracle for the holidays. What a Christmas gift she is. We sure do miss you Jasmina , give the little children hugs for me PLEASE. I sure do miss seeing all of them and i think of them everyday. Oh how i want to bring them all home and love them so much. OK: Now i am in tears, i sure love them children and pray they will get families that will love them so much.No matter what they can or can not do. Every child deserves to be loved no matter what.
Our Bella loves to be held and played with , she loves kisses and will kiss us back. When she says MAMA i could just cry. She is such a gift to our whole family. Grama is just so in love with Bella, she is trying to get Bella to stand to walk. Everybody is trying so hard to help teach Bella new things. It is so great how all of her brothers and sisters love her almost as much as her parents do .

~Looking at Christmas lights~

Bella's 2yr. old neice (Natalie) feeding her

Driving around town looking at Christmas lights

Bella doesn't mind her carseat at all

WE DROVE AROUND LAST NIGHT CHECKING OUT ALL THE PRETTY CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND DECORATIONS. THE KIDDOS REALLY ENJOY IT, BUT I THINK MOM & DAD ENJOY IT EVEN MORE BECAUSE THE KIDS ARE ALL IN SEAT BELTS AND WE DON'T HAVE TO CHASE ANYOBODY AROUND AND ALSO SOMETIMES THEY WILL SLEEP AND GIVE US SOME QUIET TIME. BELLA DOESN'T REALLY NOTICE THE LIGHTS AT A DISTANCE, BUT WHEN YOU SHOW HER CLOSE UP SHE GETS VERY EXCITED AND SWINGS HER ARMS AND KICKS HER LEGS.WE WILL HAVE TO GO FOR ANOTHER LIGHT SHOW BEFORE CHRISTMAS , BUT NOT THIS WEEKEND BECAUSE IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SNOWY AND VERY COLD (-10 TO -25) YES ,THAT IS BELOW ZERO BRRRRRRRRRR. SO WE WIL HAVE TO HIBERNATE IN THE HOUSE ALL WEEKEND.

Natalie, Camren & Aubrey~ our grandchildren~

Amber,David,Aubrey,Natalie & Camren
Amber & David are the very brave ones that moved into our house to take care of our little children still at home. We are very thankful that they did this for us and the children.

Bella crawling

Bella and her nephew~ Camren

~Beautiful little Bella Boo~

We are so thankful that we have Bella home, and we pray that the other families waiting can bring there little ones home soon also. We love Bella so much and it feels like she has been here forever.We are so proud to be her parents and forever family.

THANK YOU AGAIN TO ANDREA@ Reece's Rainbow.org, and J & J in Serbia. We are so grateful to have our little girl. We love all of our children so much~little ones and big ones also.

Photo shoot

Mommy & Bella

Bella with big sister Amber

Deztany, McKenzie, Bella, Natalie, Camren, Aubrey,

Megan &. Andrew

Bella, Megan, Deztany & McKenzie

Daddy & Bella

Bella jumping in her jumper

THIS IS A SHORT VIDEO CLIP OF BELLA JUMPING IN HER JUMPER, SHE CAN REALLY GET IT BOUNCING WHEN SHE WANTS TO. IT IS VERY HARD TO GET ANY VIDEOS OF HER BECAUSE SHE STOPS WHATEVER SHE'S DOING WHEN THE CAMERA OR CAMCORDER IS TURNED ON. HOPEFULLY WE CAN GET A VIDEO OF HER PULLING HERSELF UP TO STAND AND CLIMBING ONTO THE COUCH.

~Guess what Bella is doing~

BELLLA HAS BEEN SPENDING LOTS OF TIME IN HER JUMPER AND IT IS WORKING VERY WELL BUILDING HER LEG MUSCLES BECAUSE NOW SHE CAN CLIMB INTO A STANDING POSITION AGAINST OUR LEGS OR AGAINST THE FURNITURE, AND MOM & GRANDMA HAD HER TAKING A COUPLE OF UNASSISTED STEPS ON FRIDAY. WE ARE SO AMAZED AT HOW MUCH MORE SHE CAN DO EACH DAY AND HER CUTE SMILE AND OUTGOING PERSONALITY JUST MELTS OUR HEARTS. WE WENT CHRISTMAS SHOPPING LAST NIGHT AND WE PICKED UP A THERAPY BALL FOR BELLA AND SHE LOVES WORKING WITH IT. WE WERE SHOPPING FOR HOURS AND HOURS AND BELLA DID GREAT, SHE IS EVEN GETTING USED TO HER CAR SEAT AND TRAVELING FOR SHORT TRIPS, YES THE CAMPBELLS LOVE TO BE ON THE GO ALL THE TIME SO THIS IS A BLESSING

Happy Holidays from The littlest Campbell

Bella Boo~we love you~

Bella sitting on daddy.

Bella loves her daddy!!

When daddy comes home from work Bella crawls to him and gives him kisses. She will climb on him and keep giving him kisses. I am so thankful for Ava Urban. You ask why? Well that is how my hubby finally agreed to international adoption. When the Urban family went to get Ava we followed there blog to see how it all went. Well my hubby just loved Ava, and then he seen how much John and Charissa loved Ava ,all the children in the family where so awesome with Ava. They really showed us how they all love this little girl no matter what she could do or not do. That is how we felt , that when we adopt a child with Down syndrome it didn't matter what the child could or would do , we would love them any way. When we seen our little Bella we new she was the one to be our daughter. It didn't matter if she could or would do anything. We would teach her what we could, but always love her very much . Yes we do love this little princess very much. She is doing wonderful, she learns something new everyday. You would be so surprised to see her. She loves to laugh and giggle. She loves to play with her toys and her siblings. Her favorite toy is still her V~Tech nursery light up book. She loves this book.We brought it with us to go get her. We brought lots of other toys also , but this was her favorite.

Thank you all again for supporting us on our adoption journey, it was really nice to be able to read comments from home and from our on ~ line friends. Thank you Amber and David for moving in and taking such good care of our little children while we were gone. We are so greatful for this. Also for grandma for comming in and helping teach the children there schooling .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JODY

TODAY IS JODY'S BIRTHDAY AND WE ARE CELEBRATING WITH CAKE AND ICE CREAM. WE ALL WANT TO SAY THANK YOU TO A VERY SPECIAL WIFE, MOM & GRANDMA FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO FOR ALL OF US. IT IS JUST AMAZING THE THINGS YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH EVERY DAY. YOU ARE VERY SPECIAL TO ALL OF US, WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH GARY, JASON JAS, ZABES, JAKE,JESS,EVAN, JENNA, ADIEN, AMBER, DAVID, CAMREN, NATALIE, AUBREY, MCKENZIE, DEZTANY, ANDREW, MAGGIE, & BELLA. HAVE A GREAT DAY

We have learned alot from our trip.

Yes, We have learned alot from our trip. We have learned mostly that we as Americans have way to much "stuff" as in possessions. We learned you can live with alot less and still be very happy. I have been going through our house and getting organized. We have way to much "stuff'. I think we will be having many more yard sales. Many toys and things in our house never get palyed with or used. It really is sad we buy all this stuff and never use it. When there are children out there that have very little.

We have a few children on our minds alot, one being baby M, we got to meet her birth parents. We would love to be her forever family some day. We will say lots of prayers that when adoptions start up again in Serbia, that they will start letting families go back to adopt again. We also met a little guy with aperts syndrome, he is so adorable and he loved Bella's V~TECH light up book. I would love to send him this . He would really love it. We think of all the children everyday and wish they could find there forever families soon. My heart aches for all the children, i sure wish i could sit and rock them like we are doing with Bella. We love her so much and we see her changing everyday. She is getting so happy and a personality to boot. Dad says she is a sweetie pie. We are feeling so blessed to have Bella home.We love her dearly.

Please pray for all the orphans to find forever families soon.

Bless all the workers who take care of the orphans to the best of there ability.

Bless all those who try to find families for the children.

BELLA IS DOING GREAT

BELLA LOVES HER JUMPER

BELLA AND HER BIG BROTHER JAKE

ALL DRESSED UP FOR THANKSGIVING

BELLA IS DOING FANTASTIC , SHE IS ADJUSTING TO EVERYTHING IN HER NEW LIFE.WE HAD A FULL HOUSE FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER AND SHE WENT FROM ONE PERSON TO THE NEXT WITHOUT ANY HESITATION AT ALL, AND SHE JUST LOVED ALL THE ATTENTION EVERYONE GAVE HER.WE ARE VERY PLEASED WITH HER PROGRESS IN JUST THE THREE WEEKS WE'VE BEEN WITH HER, SHE IS REALLY STARTING TO BABBLE A LOT, SHE WILL SMILE AND GIGGLE AT JUST ABOUT ANYTHING, AND THE GRIN ON HER FACE WHEN SOMEONE WALKS IN THE DOOR OR MOM OR DAD GETS HER OUT OF BED IS PRICELESS.SHE ENJOYS BEING IN HER JUMPER, WHICH IS GOOD FOR BUILDING HER LEG MUSCLES.WE TOOK HER TO THE BANK TO MEET THE LADIES THAT HELPED US SO MUCH ON OUR JOURNEY, AND THEY WERE IN TEARS WHEN BELLA GAVE DAD ONE OF HER LICK KISSES.IT IS STILL HARD TO BELIEVE THAT OUR JOURNEY TO GET HER IS OVER WITH AND SHE IS REALLY CRAWLING AROUND THE HOUSE FOLLOWING ONE OF US.EVERY DAY BRINGS OUT MORE OF HER PERSONALITY AND LOVE FOR HER NEW FAMILY. WE HAD VERY MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO SPEND OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS WITH OUR NEWEST ANGEL.

Beautiful sites of Serbia~

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These are some of the beautiful sites of Serbia. We spent alot of time walking and seeing the sites. It was wonderful to see all that we did. We had good tour guides for our trip. Thank you so much for taking the time to show us around.
We hope all is well in Serbia and we do miss you all.