April 18:  Oath Taking Ceremony

Today we went to the US Consulate to take our oath as a family.  We should get FuBing’s visa in the morning and head out to Hong Kong on a 3 hour van ride at 5:00pm.  We are almost home!!!!  We made some great progress last night playing with some dolls.  She read the work “OK” and repeated a sentence, which by the way, when she says English words, it is clear as a bell!!!  I do not understand how that happened.  I guess we have such a slow, southern accent, that it is easy for her to understand!!!  Also, last night, I tucked her in and told her goodnight and blew her a kiss.  To my surprise, she blew me one back and smiled!  Today has been a different story.  She has had a rough day.  Our guide talked to her today to let her know what was going to happen over the next few days.  I think the reality of leaving China hit her after our conversation.  She is doing better at the moment.  We are going to order room service for dinner and wait for her friends back home to wake up so she can talk with them.  I am sooooo missing my family and friends.  I am an emotional rock for the most part.  I can handle anything life throws at me.  The past week and a half has about done me in emotionally and spiritually.  I know God will take care of us and I guess that is what is keeping me going, the hope I have in Him.  He must have a lot of faith in me, although I don’t know why.  I love Him.  I trust Him.  I know He loves me.  I know He loves my girls.  I know He has great things in store for them.  I just wish He would tell me what to do to help my girls.  I wish He would call me up to the top of Green Mountain and talk with me and give me a stone tablet with instructions.  I wish I could be so close to Him that I would have to cover my face when I came down!!  I know that He is always with me, I am just being very transparent. I want to help my girls.

One week ago today we became a family of 4.  What a difference a week makes.  If you had told FuBing last Monday that she would be smiling at me today, she would have screamed at you.  We had a great day.  First we went to breakfast.  They have huge spread.  I follow her and help her when she needs it.  She went back for seconds without asking me to go, so I kept my eyes on her.  She has trouble opening these weird food warmer (you get a steam burn when you open it).  She went to one and looked back to where I was sitting.  I jumped up and ran to her!!!! She needed me!!!!!  What a feeling!  When we came back to the room, she skyped some girls back in the states (sorry for keeping your girls up so late).  Then she started calling on the phone.  She actually asked and smiled.  The second call she made, I bribed her for a hug first and I was successful!!!!!  We then went to get her TB test read which was normal.  Then she wanted McDonalds again.  She eat everything!!!!!  Next, the group of us went shopping on a local island.  It has changed a lot since last time and was not any fun for her.  She did pick out a watch.  OH…last night while she was skyping a friend, she came and got Eden out of bed to show her off.  It was so cute.  We are still not getting smiling pics.  I don’t want to post ones that may embarrass her in the future.  We are about to go eat supper so I will sign off.   God Bless, Amanda

Three for One

April 15^th: Three for One

What a day Friday was.  We got to the airport at 3:30 for a 4:50 flight which was delayed until 9:00…….and was there ac?????NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We got to our hotel about midnight and could not get internet service so there was no blog Friday.  Saturday, we realized how much of a teenage girl FuBing is….she talked on the phone all day and skyped until 10pm.  So….I am just now getting the computer for a moment.  Anyway……FuBing and Eden have been wonderful.  FuBing has not cried in over 72  hours!!!!!!  She has skyped 2 friends back in the states and loves it.  We have gone shopping twice and she secretly loves it.  She has gotten 4 small dolls, a dress, a headband, 2 hip outfits, and a pair of purple dress shoes.  She is eating now, smiling sometimes, and talking to us a little.  Again, the girl is sooooo super smart!  You show her something and she is like a sponge.  She is soaking everything up.  She watched the cashiers like a hawk today.  Anyway…..today is Eden’s 4^th birthday.  We are waiting on cake to arrive….actually it just arrived and I stopped to eat some.  The kiddos don’t like it.  Go figure.  Let’s see, yesterday was the doctor appointment.  Bless her heart.  She got 4 shots and a TB skin test (which to me looks normal!!!)  We go back tomorrow to get it read.

Oh, some are asking what time we get home Friday.  I believe our plane is due to land around 5:15ish pm. 

Love to all and thank you so much for the prayers!!!!  Oh…a little miracle…she picked out a little doll on a key chain today.  Later we went for a walk.  She hooked it on her belt loop for the walk.  About 10 minutes into our walk, I look down and it was gone.  We started back-tracking to find it.  I was so disappointed for her.  What was the chance that we would find it in a city with the massive population such as this one.  I prayed that God would please let us find it.  No sooner than the words left my heart, I looked about 15 yards and saw it laying on the sidewalk!!!! Thanks God.  I know that is a little thing, but to her it was huge.  She hooked it back on her pants and never let go! 

April 12^th:  A Glimpse of the Light

Well, today started out like the last 3 days, but ended much differently!!!!  Again, I am blown away at FuBing’s bravery and her intelligence. 

We went to the zoo today, then went shopping (bought nothing).  We crossed our first road in China today on foot and survived!!!! Tonight, we had dinner with an amazing family from Australia.  They are our second God sent family of the week.  They have a beautiful adopted daughter from India (adopted age 7, now age 15) and just adopted a 7 year old beautiful girl from here.  Their oldest daughter had dinner with FuBing and found a way to communicate with her.  I caught the beginning of several smiles that ended as soon as she saw me looking (notice, she is at least looking my way).  They chatted for about 2 hours while we spoke with the parents.  What words of wisdom they gave us!!!! AND it seems to have worked for now.  When we got back to the room, she did not turn sideways to stay as far away from us as possible.  She communicated to me that she wanted water, did not want to play the 2 games that I offered, and let me know she did not like what was on TV!  She allowed both B and I to lean on the bed and tell her we love her!!!!!!! Then it was off to sleep.  PRAISE YOU JESUS!!!

Eden is doing very well.  She was amazing today. 

Thank you all for the verses and prayers.  They are meaning so much to me.  I cannot individually thank you all or I would be on the computer all night.   God bless you all.

April 11^th

There is no title today because I have no energy to muster up anything.  FuBing had another rough day.  She got to skype with a friend in the states that was adopted in December.  She was happy to see her, sad to say goodbye.  The saving grace was this evening when she got to spend some more time with the younger girl from her orphanage.  They actually spoke to each other and smiled a bit.  God put them here at this time and place for her!  They are truly a blessing.  We got a few pics today, but B has not had time to download them.  I will post them tomorrow along with zoo pictures.

Now a request:  We are here in China with no Bible.  The Bible app (which we thought downloaded the Bible actually on our phones) is blocked.  Can you send me some of your favorite verses?  Maybe a verse a day?????

China Trip - April 10th

April 10^th:  Brave Girl

This has been a long, heartbreaking day.  FuBing is so deeply saddened.  She loves her “mother” (nanny) so much.  Her nanny must have taken good care of her.  She is homesick.  I can not imagine the amount of courage it must take for her to come with us.  We look, smell, and sound nothing like her.  To her, we are alien. 

We finished up the paperwork and the adoption is now final.  There is a new member of the Yarbrough household!!!!!  She is so smart!!  Breath taking beautiful.  She loves angry birds and noodles.  Does not like the girly clothes, or nail polish or balloons! 

She got to play with another younger girl from her orphanage today. WHAT A BLESSING!!!! Tomorrow we will be going with her friend and her family to a temple of some sort.  FuBing is very happy about that.

Thank you for your prayers…keep them going up!!!!

Touring China

Gottcha Day!!!! April 9th

We are soooo exhausted.  I do not think I was this worn out the first go around.

We stayed busy sun up to sun down in Beijing and we got up this morning at 4am.  We made it to Hefei around 10:00, got unpacked (no drawers) (ac almost non existant!), ate lunch, and then headed off to civil affairs.  When we walked in the room, Phoebe (who at this time wants to be called FuBing) was standing there.  She let me give her a hug. Yay!!  Brando filled out all the paperwork while I gave FuBing all the goodies.  Let me say that she is very independent and smart.  She figured out her ipod touch in like 2 seconds!  She loves Angry Birds.  

She is having a tough time.  She has already called her Nanny.  She has had many tears come pouring out of those big brown eyes.  She is deeply saddened and is scared.  She is sound asleep at this moment. Don’t know how long that will last.

Hopefully I can get some good pics tomorrow.  Just did not happen today.

God Story- Journey to Phoebe

As many of you know, God lead us on an exciting journey to China 2 1/2 years ago to give us our beautiful daughter, Eden.  This Spring, God is taking us back to China for Phoebe.  We started our Journey to Phoebe this past summer.  We knew God was calling us to an older child, so we filled out all our paperwork to reflect the "Waiting Children" program.  Everything moved along quite smoothly.  I figured by the time we completed our dossier and got logged in at the CCCWA in China, we would get matched in March and travel around Christmas of this year.  Boy was I not thinking big enough!!

As we did with Eden, we prayed that God's hand would be clearly seen in this adoption.  He has answered that prayer already!!! On October 3rd, 2011, we saw a picture of a beautiful girl named "Michelle" on Love Without Boundaries and fell in love. Although we were not finished with our dossier, we picked up the phone and called the agency she was listed with.  We were told a family was reviewing her file.  Our hearts sunk and we continued the "paper chase" to complete our dossier.  We could not get "Michelle" out of our hearts or minds.  We decided maybe God just wanted us praying for her.

Fast forward to January 9th.  I get about 10 calls from Brandon asking if I had read the post from LWB.  I would say "no" every time (the last few with a bit of frustration).  When he got home, I was rocking Eden and he brought me the phone with the article pulled up and I began to read a heart warming story of a family that had adopted an older, sweet, beautiful girl.  The story was inspiring and was hoping to touch the hearts of the "Body of Christ" to obey the call in James.  In the middle of the story, there was a familiar name in blue (so you could click on it) of a little girl that was in need of a forever family.  As I clicked on the name that my heart had already grown to love, my husband excitedly says "that's our Michelle!"  It appeared that "Michelle" was still in the system for adoption. I did not want to get too excited because I did not know when the article had been written.  I immediately called the agency she was listed with and left a message.

The next day, Brandon calls again and says that LWB posted all the kids that had been adopted or matched in 2011 that they advocated, and "Michelle" was not on the list.  I got a little more excited!  I called the agency she was listed with again and left another message.  The next day the listed agency called me back and said that the family did not pursue "Michelle" and that CCCWA pulled her file.  I was also informed that she had a birthday coming up and would need to be an "expedited" case (I will explain that later).
I called AWAA (our agency). They immediately began looking for her.  I contacted LWB and they gave me the name of the agency they thought her file was with.  In-country (China) staff was looking for her.

On January 18th, I took Eden to therapy.  I knew in my heart that "Michelle's" file had be located and that she was mine!  I knew I would be receiving a call from AWAA telling me that we had her.  I left my phone in the truck so I could care for Eden in therapy and not be distracted.  When we finished, I rushed out the door, put Eden in her seat, grabbed my phone and saw I had a voice mail.  Sure enough, it was Aimee (our family coordinator) with the news that CCCWA had pulled "Michelle's" file from the list and given it to AWAA for our family to review!!!!  Review shmooo!  We did all the steps you have to do, but we knew in our hearts she was ours.  We knew why we fell in love with her in October.  We knew why we went to her pictures all the time.  We knew why we could not get her face out of our heads.  "MICHELLE" WAS OURS!!!!!!!

Our sweet "Michelle's" Chinese name is Huai Fu Bing.  Isn't that beautiful?  Huai is short for the city that her orphanage is in.  Fu means "good fortune, happiness, luck". While Bing means "bright, brilliant, luminous".  I wanted to give her a biblical name like her sister.  Brando pulled up female names in the Bible.  When he came to Phoebe, my heart stopped.  In Romans 16:1, this is what we find:  "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have of you for she herself has also been a helper of many and of myself as well."  I thought that was beautiful.  Also, Brandon looked it up and it means "bright, shining, pure" pretty much what Bing means!!!  So, her new name is "Phoebe FuBing Yarbrough".

Back to the "expedited".  Sadly, when children turn 14 in China they age out of the adoption program. "Michelle's" birthday is in May, so she has to be legally ours before her birthday.  The time frame from being matched to "Gotcha Day" is 6-9 months due to all the new rules.  So all the same stuff that takes place in that time frame must take place in 2-3 months!!!

We officially accepted her file on January 23th.  We received Pre-Approval from CCCWA on February 8th  and were officially approved by CCCWA on February 13th.  Also on the 13th, we were told that Phoebe had been told she has a family coming soon to get her!!!!

Now, the wait.  US Immigration approvals take about 3-4 weeks.  Unlike China, they decided not to expedite her file.  Another adoptive mom gave me a priceless tip and we "expedited" the process for them!  Next came the wait for the Article 5 which is issued by the US Consulate in China.  They received our case on Friday, March 9th and said they would review our case and decide whether or not to expedite that part,  if not (which we thought would happen), it would get issued on Friday, March 23rd which meant we would not travel until the middle to end of April. Well, Monday morning rolled around with no word.  The day ended the same way.  My heart was broken.  The thought of my baby so far away and red tape separating us was too much.  I went to bed and grabbed my devotion, "Jesus Calling".  I knew I was going to get a word from God.  Here is what I read, March 12, "WAITING, TRUSTING, AND HOPING are intricately connected, like golden strands interwoven to form a strong chain. Trusting is the central strand, because it is the response from my children that I desire the  most.  Waiting and hoping embellish the central strand and strengthen the chain that connects you to Me."  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  God had Sarah Young write that post for March 12th specifically for me.  What a hug!!!  The next morning I checked email to see if there was any news.  NOTHING!   I posted on FB about my devotion and trusted God that He had our child in His hands.  I checked email one more time, disappointed, I turned off the computer.  Less than 3 minutes, Brandon calls and asked me if I had read Teresa's email.  What???? I turned on the computer and read that the Consulate had expedited our case and issued our Article 5!!!!!!!!!  Hugs and Kisses from my Heavenly Daddy!!!  Now we began the wait for our Travel Approval (TA) from China.  This came almost 2 weeks later on March 23rd.  Along with that news came our travel plans.  We will be leaving on the 5th of April which makes Gotcha Day April 9th!!  Our Consulate appointment is on the 18th and we come home on the 20th.  We are sooo excited!!!!  We cannot wait for our daughter to be in our arms.

Over the past few weeks, I have spoken with so many wonderful families with connections to Phoebe's orphanage; some are going to adopt from there for the first time, others are going back again.  One family is getting 2 girls from Huainan!   I have spoken with a family that wanted to get information on Phoebe at the same time we were trying in October.  They are adopting one of Phoebe's "sisters" but have been earnestly praying for our daughter!  I have spoken with another family in Alabama that is getting another of Phoebe's "sisters" and one in Atlanta and Florida!!!  How amazing that these girls are coming home.  I have also been blessed to meet Sandy from LWB.  She has known Phoebe since 2007.  She and LWB have played a vital role in Phoebe's life.

A side note....The adoption process can be a lonely place.  Any time you obey God, you may as well put a big bull's eye on you and your family!  When we started this second adoption, I was not ready yet.  As many of you know, Eden has a severe sensory disorder.  This disorder showed up about the time Brandon started talking about adopting again.  My harsh words were something to the affect of "Don't bring it up again until the end of the summer!"  Ouch!  My sweet husband continued to listen to the voice of God.  We talked about it a month later and my heart changed.  I was worried about telling people we were adopting again for two reasons: 1) Eden's "issue" 2) our special need being an older child.  I am not going to lie, this time around was not all fluff and hugs and loves from people.  Remember that bull's eye I told you about???? Arrows came from all directions causing me to question the timing of what God told us as a family to do.  A dear wise friend going through the same thing gave me the most freeing words...."You do not have to justify what God tells you to anyone."  WOW!!!! I knew that, but I never practiced that.  I felt like a burden had been lifted and I began to completely enjoy the process!!!

Let me tell you about the "timing" of our decision (which was questioned a thousand times)...If we had waited any longer, our paperwork would not have been done in time and a girl by the name of Huai Fu Bing would have remained an orphan due to "aging out".  She would have never had a momma, a daddy, a little sister, 4 great grandparents, 6 grandparents, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, 4 first cousins, too many great great and great aunts and uncles and 2nd and 3rd cousins to count.  But most importantly, she most likely would have never heard of Jesus The Christ and what He did for her.  On the other hand, we would have missed the blessing of Fu Bing being our daughter.  We also would have been disobedient to our God.

Praise You God for Your calling on our life that led us on a "Road Less Traveled" called adoption, that became even less traveled as You led us to our "Waiting Children."  Praise You God for a run down, bumpy, country "Road Less Traveled" in Huainan, that rarely sees visitors.  This "Road Less Traveled" passess a building that appears to have no significance, but if you look closely as you pass by, you see the most beautiful, lonely faces longing to be loved.  This is the"Road Less Traveled" that will lead us to our Phoebe.

As we prepare our home and lives for our new addition, please pray for us.  Pray we will continue to see and seek God's hand in the wait.  Pray for our daughter a world away.  Pray for spiritual and physical protection.  Pray that God will give her a peace about her new family.  Pray He will give her a vision of us.  Pray for her Huainan family.  Pray that He will place the desire for adoption in the hearts of His children and His church.  Orphanages are not God's design for families, therefore He commands us to care for them.  There are many ways you can do that.  The best is to give them a forever home, but you can sponsor.  You can donate money for health care and school needs.  Pray and see what God places on your heart.  Who knows, you could be bringing home one of Phoebe's "sisters" next year!!!!   I dare you to go to lwbcommunity.org and not fall in love.  I dare you to go where God is blessing and try not to be blessed.  Go ahead....I dare you!!!!!

Here is the first picture we saw...the picture we came back to time and time again thinking she was someone else's daughter.  Praise You God for that other family realizing she was not the child You had for them!