A Lehighton family chose to give back to other families in a big way after adopting their daughter.

Jennifer and Cliff Eckhart dropped off a large collection of donations at Care Net of Carbon County in Lehighton on Friday afternoon.The donations were the result of the Bella Project, created by Jennifer and Cliff with the intention of helping out families just like theirs.The project was named after their 2-year-old adopted daughter, Bella Eckhart, and lasted from June 24 to July 24.The donations totaled in at over $600 and 427 parenting items, including strollers, toys, diapers and more. Over $2,000 in total resources were collected.The Eckharts were inspired to give back after Bella officially became their child in June, despite caring for her for the past two years.Jennifer and Cliff have known each other since childhood and have been married for the past 18 years, but were unsuccessful in having a child of their own.That changed when a friend informed the Lehighton couple of someone in the area who had a child that needed a place to stay. Bella was only 5 months old at the time, and came to live with the Eckharts when they learned of her situation.They fell in love with Bella immediately, but ran into problems while trying to officially adopt her. Bella's mother gave full consent for the adoption, but the father was nowhere to be found."It was a positive but trying time. There were a lot of unknowns and uncertainties that we had to deal with, not knowing if we were going to be able to keep her after all that time," Cliff said.After a year of searching, Bella's biological father was found, and shortly thereafter gave consent for the Eckharts to adopt her. Bella was officially a member of the family on June 23.The family decided to celebrate and honor Bella by helping others the way they were helped."Our friends helped out so much through this whole process. Hundreds of lives have been affected by Bella," Jennifer said.The donated items will go to the families that come to Care Net for help.Care Net specializes in helping people struggling with problems such as relationships, pregnancy and parenting. Susie DeMara, director of the nonprofit organization, was grateful for the large amount of donations given."This is wonderful. When parents come in here and see all these resources, that means support to them. They are so thankful, and so are we," DeMara said.Now that they can really call Bella their own, the Eckharts are looking forward to living happily and comfortably as a family."We were so thankful for the opportunity to adopt. We've had a lot of great adventures over the years, but nothing compares to this," Cliff said.