Naming Our Son

"Daniel" was a name given to our son by either America World, or the Chinese Social Services for his privacy.  Those of you who know us well, know that all children in the Campbell family have a name that begins with "K."  We never set out to do this-it just happened along the way.  Kaden was born and when we became pregnant with our 2nd we thought we were having a girl  (even though we didn't know for sure).  We liked the way Kaden and Kiana sounded together. I don't even remember having a boy name picked out, although I'm sure we did.  When we were pregnant with our 3rd we used "K" names to help make the process easier.  Choosing names when one spouse is a teacher is always difficult.  A lot of the names I liked we couldn't use because they reminded Russ of a student, usually a bad behaving one!  Karson was born.  When our 4th came along, we were stuck.  We had to choose a "K" name or else she would feel left out.  No questions were asked when we chose "Daniel." He would have a "K" name also, but since we are adopting him and he is 7 years old, we wanted to keep part of his given name.  We chose "Kai" to be his first name and will keep his given first name as his middle name.  Very soon, Kai Fu Zhong Campbell will be joining the Campbell K-Kids.

Unbeknownst to us, Kai is a special name because he is from Kaili City.  I had seen that he was from this city, but thought it pronounced "Kay-lee"so I didn't make the connection.  Kai's foster-mom pointed this out to me and told me that the two are pronounced the same-with a long i.  I love this because Kaili City has been his home for 7 years, and I don't want him or us to forget his country.

Kai means "firmly rooted."  I pray that Kai will be firmly rooted in Christ someday.  "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper." Psalm 1:3

One Year to the Day

Once we applied with America World (AWAA), we were given access to their Waiting Child page.  This online page has photos and a short description of children who haven't been matched yet with families.  On March 11, 2014, while I was looking through the photos, I was drawn to 3 kiddos.  I wrote their "names" in my prayer journal and began praying that they would be matched with a family soon. One of those kids was "Daniel!"  Two of them were matched within a couple of weeks and Daniel was left,  I didn't think about pursuing Daniel too much because we were so early in the process and I didn't know how any of this adoption-thing worked.  We will leave the U.S. on 3-11-15 to go get Daniel!  A year to the day that I began praying for our son.  God is so good!  

Why Adopt?

Some people may wonder, 'Why are the Campbell's adopting? They already have four kids and their life is so full and a little crazy at times too!'  I can't remember the exact circumstances, but when Russ and I were first married, before we even started thinking about having kids,  the desire/burden to adopt began.  That was 20 years ago and this "call" to adopt only grew.  Of course there were many years that this call was dormant...while we had babies around and then the struggle of learning differences with a couple of our kids.  These years stretched us greatly, but that story is for a different blog (if I ever write that one). I would share this call, or burden with Russ from time to time, but God hadn't put this same call on him, so I waited.  Eventually, I just prayed that if God wanted us to adopt then He would put the burden on Russ as well.  I didn't want to talk Russ into this.  Fall of 2013 we were driving home from some activity and Russ asked, "Do you still think about adoption?"  My heart leapt.  "Yes, all the time..."  That was the beginning of a discussion that lasted through the holidays, and on March 6, 2014 we applied with America World Adoption Association.