Have you ever been in a situation in life where you just don't understand "why" things are happening the way they are? You cry out to God in search for answers and the only response you hear seems to be silence. As Christ followers, we grow up learning and come to believe that God is in control and everything happens for a reason. We hear countless times that we may never know this side of heaven. Well how cool is it when you realize that the silence you thought you heard was in fact a deep breath that was getting ready to exhale the "why" with a booming, joyful, all powerful, loving voice! That is what recently happened in the Yarbrough home.....
As you know, a year ago we started the adoption process again. I just knew I heard God say we were to adopt 2 girls. Well, we were almost immediately granted pre-approval for Lyric and began the long paper chase process. We never heard God tell us who the second child was. We decided it was like Abraham. Maybe God was just seeing if we would be faithful to him by just being willing to adopt 2 older girls at one time. Time passed, and we were logged into China's adoption system on February 14th this year. We were hoping and should have received an expedite, but it did not happen. What should have taken 2-3 months took over 5 months. We should have had Lyric in June, but as you know, it did not happen. Then we thought no later than August, but it did not happen. We found ourselves asking "why?". After we received our final approval from China, things went fairly quickly on the US immigration side of things and we planned on being in China the end of September or the first of October. Then the Visa Center made a minor mistake, but it took almost 2 weeks to resolve. It was in the middle of the 2 week wait we began to ask "why" again. Why did this happen? Why has this taken so long? Why can't they fix this quickly? All the while telling our daughter that God was in control and we would get Lyric exactly when He decided. Well, it was in the wait that God revealed the "why"....
Friday, August 29th, Brandon and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. We actually went on a date. Wait, that was not nearly exciting enough...we went on a 7 hour date!!!!! We left the girls with some of our dear friends and headed to a late lunch and a movie. (I am going to insert a plug here for the movie "When the Game Stands Tall". I am a big football fan and that was a fantastic movie!) As we drove to Bridge Street, Brandon, in an all too familiar voice, says "Have you seen the email from Kelcey?". My heart stopped...(it was the "we're doing it again" voice). I said no and began pulling up the email. Kelcey is our family coordinator at AWAA. She sent an email advocating for a little girl that is turning 14 in January. Many of you know that children cannot be adopted from China after their 14th birthday. I pulled up the email, looked at her picture and immediately called AWAA. We asked if anyone had come forward to commit to giving her a family and they said that a family was talking about it. We said we would pray for the family. We asked them if the other family did not move forward, would be possible for us to adopt her since we are so late in the game getting ready to be issued our last bit of paperwork before travel. They said it would be possible. I hung up the phone but a piece of me knew that the conversation was not over.
I spent the weekend with knots in my stomach. What on earth were we thinking about doing? How on earth would we do it? What on earth would people think and say? Then there came a peace. We were thinking about providing a precious orphan a home. There was no way on earth we could do it, but there was a way in Heaven.
Tuesday morning, I called AWAA. The family was talking with their social worker (which you have to do before you move forward with your decision to adopt a child). Later in the day we decided to go ahead and review her file since we are so close to travel. To our surprise, there was a video of her. I fell in love! I could not get her out of my head or heart. I called AWAA the next day to see if the other family made a decision. Well, they had been torn between 2 girls. When we chose to review the one little girl's file, they chose to review the other!
Our minds were made up, this little girl was ours!
I immediately realized that she was the "why". All the delays were for her. The mistake at the Visa Center was for her. God did not change His call for 2 girls, He just orchestrated it in such a way that only He can receive the glory for it!
By the end of this year, we will be a family of 6! Funny how today, 5 years ago, we were just a family of 2, getting packed and preparing to go to China for the first and what we thought was the last time for a long time.
Oh! I guess you want to know her name....Tilly Lynn Yarbrough. She is sooooo beautiful and precious. I don't know if I have stopped smiling in days. We can't share any information about her yet and we can't post her picture, but it should not take long before we can.
It is just so exciting when you not only know you are are being held in the Father's hand, but you can feel it and see it! That is how the last few days have been like for me.
We are excited, but with our excitement comes fear. Please pray for us as we figure out how on earth we are going to raise about $25,000 more dollars in probably less than 2 months. We are $10,000 short for Lyric's adoption and it will be at least $15,000 for the second adoption process. Oh..we also don't have a vehicle big enough for all of us! (the thought of that is so weird, yet awesome!) I know God is faithful. I know He can provide. He always has.
