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!
