Baby Stella

Precious Stella has been in our lives for almost 2 weeks now, and already I can't imagine our family without her! I feel so content and complete with her here...she has been such a joy in such a short amount of time.

Mark and I stayed in the hospital for 3 nights this time and I'm so glad we did. I missed my big girls but I just love the time alone with the baby in the hospital. Plus having your meals brought to you in bed is hard to resist :) From day 1 Stella has been pretty laid back. She's very sleepy, probably the sleepiest of my girls. She is also very tolerant and patient and doesn't cry or startle easily. She must have gotten used to all the noise and action in utero!

Just love this picture of Lucy and Stella in the hospital...

It's pretty difficult to get pictures of Stella alone since she has two adoring big sisters. I'll try to get more of just her, but for now this is what our past week at home looked like:

 Naked baby!

Poor Stella. Annie canNOT leave her alone. The wet on the side of her face is from Annie licking her. For some reason her new thing is to lick when she kisses. 

Lucy has been so helpful! 

Rare moment of Stella's eyes open. She reminds me of Lucy's newborn pictures when her eyes are open 

I have been getting lots of rest thanks to fabulous friends and family who have brought meals, cleaned my house, and entertained the big girls. Mark went back to work this week and we were sad to see him go, but my mom is here helping out as I continue to recover from surgery.

For now, I'm enjoying soaking up time with my three girls without all the added responsibilities of cleaning and cooking and LIFE in general :)

Baby Surprise

She's here...one week early! And she finally has a name.

We knew for a while that her middle name would be Jean, after her two great-grandmothers, Barbara Jean (my Mimi), and Wilma Jean. Then we had a list of about 15 names on my phone that we changed almost daily. After she was born and I was still in the OR, Mark narrowed it down to about 5 names. After spending some time with her in the recovery room, we decided on Stella.

Stella Jean Campbell entered the world on October 11th




She was 6lbs 14 oz, and 19.5 inches long. She was transverse inside of me so they had a really hard time pulling her out, which has made my recovery pretty rough. She has black hair (gasp!!) and her face reminds us of both Lucy and Annie. She is absolutely perfect and we are so thankful.

This is my favorite pic of Mark holding her in the recovery room...already has him wrapped around her tiny finger.




So far she is a great nurser and a great sleeper, which is pretty much all I could ask for!




Lucy was SO excited to meet her. Annie is obviously clueless, although she did keep patting her on the head saying "baby" and smiling. I'll post the better pictures later when I can sit down at the computer but I got this one of Lucy on my phone.




Lucy is such a great big sister and I know she is going to be a huge help with Stella. I'm a little worried about how Annie is going to adjust though.

We got home today so I'll try to update more soon. I can't believe we have 3 kids! So thankful for a healthy baby and safe delivery.

Annie at 18 months

This is kind of a horrible thing to say because I have two other children at other ages right now whom I really do love to pieces...but 18 months has to be the best all time age ever. You know, in my super experienced 4 years of being a mom opinion.

I love 18 months. I love toddlerhood, really. When they interact with you, soak up new information, learn new words every day, but are still small enough to cuddle, want to be held, and aren't quite old enough to start talking back and voicing their own opinions :) (would you be shocked to hear I have a VERY opinionated 4 year old??)

At 18 months, Annie is a teeny little thing, only weighing 22 pounds! She is wearing mostly 18-24 month clothes, but some 12-18 months still fit her too. 

She is VERY active....she can climb on anything without help. She is constantly on a chair, a couch, the kitchen table, a bed, and I've even caught her on the kitchen counter a few times. Along with being active comes lots of falls and war wounds. Her head and face always look like she was in some sort of fight...and lost. 

She is lovable and cuddly, and has such a sweet spirit. Every time she sees a baby or an animal she cocks her head and scrunches her face and says "awww" in the sweetest voice.

She is talking a lot, but not as much as Lucy was at this age. Annie just says what she needs to to get by and the rest is covered up in gibberish and laughing. She can say everyone in the family's names, including grandparents. Her favorite thing to do is point to everyone in the room while saying their name, ending with herself, who she calls "nee nee". She won't say Stella. She just calls her "baby".

She has one word with multiple meanings. "Shooce" could mean juice, shoes, or Lucy. "Go go" could mean yogurt, good girl, or cookie. "Baaa" could mean ballon, ball, or back (her word for going outside, because we often go out the "back" door...).She can say night night, milk, baby, car, and everyone's names pretty much perfectly. There are lots of other words she says that I can't think of right now. "Beeyah" for zebra is probably my favorite. Oh and she has recently picked up "mine".

She went down to one nap right before 18 months...really I forced her to. She would have taken 2 naps for a bit longer I think but with Stella coming I wanted her to be taking one really long afternoon nap. She requires a lot of sleep, but she doesn't KNOW that she requires a lot of sleep. She doesn't love to sleep like Lucy does, she would rather be right in the middle of the action. Annie is often the first one to go to bed at night because she can fall into melt down mode rather quickly...as can most 18 month olds.

She LOVES her sisters. Big and Little :)

She also LOVES her mama and prefers me over anyone else. I'm not complaining.

She is very obedient to my voice. We really have not had to discipline her much because if I tell her to stop doing something she stops. I'll enjoy that while it lasts.

Most of the challenge with raising and caring for Annie is physical. She is hard to keep up with! My day mainly consists of pulling her down off of surfaces, taking sharp things out of her hand, and chasing her away from toilet bowls and Heidi's water bowl.

Oh and cleaning her. She is the Messiest. Eater. Ever.

I love this sweet girl with all my heart. She is such a blessing to our family. She is a ray of sunshine, a ball of energy, and a cuddle bug. She can make you smile in about 0.1 seconds.

See?? She made you smile didn't she....

Happy 18 months little Annie Faith!

Little Tidbits from our Life

A few things going on around here:

- both girls had check ups this week and had to get shots....I took them by myself, and my ride home looked like this:

- Lucy got a bike for her birthday so pretty much every day we have a new scrape or bruise from falling. She LOVES the bike though and I'm so proud of her perseverance because usually she gets frustrated easily and quits. (I'll do a separate post with bike pics)

-Lucy also got a fishing pole and has decided that fishing for her sister is more fun than actually fishing for...well, fish.

- I have a profound addiction to eBay. Buying and selling. I finally verbalized it to Mark the other day. Admitting you have a problem is the first step. Although, I've gotten some killer deals on clothes and shoes for the girls so I'm really not saying it's a problem....maybe I'm not ready....

- Annie is a climber. I constantly find her standing on chairs, tables, stools, toys, whatever. Fortunately she just climbs up and then stands there and yells "mama!" until I get her down.

- We've started the process of moving Annie into Lucy's room. So far I've finished the closet and I'm really happy with how it turned out. (happy with a closet? I know, I'm weird. I'm an organizational freak). We were blessed with a FREE crib and mattress, I bought crib sheets on the cheap at Ikea, and I'm making Annie's blanket and pillow case, so the room has cost us next to nothing so far. Although I am a little ticked at fabric.com since I've tried to order the backing for Annie's blanket TWICE and not heard until 2 weeks later that it's out of stock....ugh.

- We have a new bunny friend in our yard. He hangs out by the clover in the back, and Lucy has gotten pretty close to him a few times.

- NO we don't have a baby name yet. I know this is hard to believe, but really, we don't. Certain people (ahem...) have even asked Lucy what the baby's name will be because they think we just aren't telling. We aren't secret keepers. We truly don't have a name.

- Although I've never been so physically and emotionally miserable in my life because this pregnancy has been so difficult, I have a huge peace and joy about the upcoming changes to our family and where God is leading us. He has been so gracious and faithful and I am reminded daily of what an honor pregnancy is, and how fleeting life can be. God is also doing amazing things in our community and we are excited and humbled to be a part of a new church plant in Newnan (more on that later).

That's all I got...we have lots of work to do today to get ready for baby!

Ballet and iphone dump

Hey remember when I used to blog? That was fun.

Sorry I'm slacking, but I have no energy lately. When the girls sleep, I sleep...or atleast I'm trying to sleep. And when they're awake, well, there's no blogging time :)

Lucy started ballet a few weeks ago. Since she's not in preschool it's nice to have something to do to get out of the house one morning a week, and she loves it and asked to do ballet instead of gymnastics this year. Although, after watching the Olympics, I'm not sure that was a wise choice :)

Here she is on her first day: (with little munchkin in the background)

We did a mommy and me ballet class when she was 2 and it was all over the place. This one is much more structured. They crack me up on their little mats....

Other than ballet, and waiting on this new baby girl to get here, not much going on around these parts. The girls are getting so sweet and have really started to play together nonstop. But with playing together comes fights, and Annie hit Lucy in the face for the first time today. Can't say I blame her....I knew the day would come when Annie would decide to fight back. Ahhh sisterly love.

Here are some random pics from my phone of the sweet sisters.

Munchkin stole Lucy's purse....

So sweet sleeping

Playing in the sprinkler on a hot day...this day ended with bug bites ALL over...I think a fire ant got Lucy's stomach because they were really bad for a few days. Where did the bugs come from? I feel like we haven't had bugs all summer but this past month has been awful.

A moment of playing sweetly together under the tree. They love being outside.

Another sweet moment...I asked Lucy to wake Annie up from her nap. A few minutes later I went into Annie's room and found them like this. Lucy had climbed into Annie's crib with a book for both of them to read. They can be so sweet sometimes! Both my girls LOVE books and usually "book" is the first word out of Annie's mouth every morning as she reaches for her bookshelf from her crib.

That's all I've got for now! I'm hoping to get another Annie post up soon, I feel like she's changed so much in the past 2 months or so...also have some craft projects I want to blog about, and need to take some pictures of the girls' rooms before I merge them together! (and hopefully an after picture if I can get the room to look how I want on a budget of ZERO dollars)

My big 4 year old

I can't believe I have a 4 year old. Sometimes I look at Lucy and I hardly recognize her because she is so big. This was a big year for her. I look at pictures of her turning 3 and she looks like a baby. This year she blossomed into a beautiful little girl with a kind heart and a spunky attitude. 

Lucy's highlights from this year:

Revealing her own sense of style

Sharing her home, toys, family, and Christmas with an orphan

Becoming a gymnast

Rejoicing in a whole year of being a big sister

Being a princess

Discovering a love for the beach

Getting her ears pierced

Celebrating her 4th birthday at Monkey Joe's

Sometimes I think she has more personality than I know how to handle. The Lord has humbled me and taught me so much in the 4 short years I have been blessed to raise this girl. Every day I strive to discipline and instruct her for His glory, and every day I wonder how badly I'm screwing her up :) But every day I am filled with joy at the little moments with her, at the small glimpses of truly how beautiful she is becoming. My heart overflows with love, more than I ever thought it could.

Sweet Lucy Laine, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and greatly loved!

(It's just about impossible to get a picture of Lucy alone these days. Her little shadow is never far behind)

Laura Update

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Laura and Inese are being hosted this summer by a family in North Georgia. I have spoken with the family several times over the phone, had countless emails regarding Laura, and pretty much convinced her that she MUST host these girls this summer! They are a wonderful family, and although Inese had a very difficult time at first, they are both doing great now.

Families all over the nation host with Project 143, so we were so grateful that Laura ended up with someone in Georgia so we could go see her! She has grown so much and just looked beautiful. We had a great visit with her, Lucy and Laura ran off immediately and started playing as if they were best buds. Inese was very attached to her host mom but very sweet and gave me a big hug before we left (which was huge....because she doesn't usually do that...) Laura was, of course, sweet and affectionate too.

We have been praying earnestly for these girls ever since we had to put Laura back on that plane. I knew the Lord wasn't calling us to adopt them, but I also knew our role wasn't finished and that He had a future and a hope for them beyond what an orphanage in Latvia could offer. We had several families interested in them while they were here, and the family hosting them now has had several families interested as well.

I am so thrilled, humbled, and thankful to say that a family in Florida has started the adoption process to adopt Laura and Inese!! Adoption is a huge black pit of unknowns, as we have learned with the little exposure to it we have had, so of course nothing is certain, but this family is committed 100% to these girls, and if all goes as planned then they should begin their first trip to Latvia in November! As hosting rules require, the girls don't know they are being adopted yet, and I'm not sure when they will know. Please pray for this entire process, that it goes smoothly, that the girls transition well, and that this family's needs will be met.

If you want to help financially towards their adoption please let me know. We will be trying to raise money to help out the family and I will probably be doing at least one fundraiser at some point.

Thank you for everyone's support when we hosted Laura. We are so thankful we were able to be a small part in these girls' journey to find a family and pray that the Lord continues His faithfulness towards them and finishes the work He began.

Praise God!