The Yost Family

Rick and I both knew that the option of adoption was an open one for our family. But after having had 3 successful, albeit high-risk pregnancies, we thought that our family was complete.

But in August of 1995, God directed my attention to an article about adoptions in China. I tucked the article away in one of my “to be read later” piles, only to find it staring back at me unread two weeks later. I knew the Lord wanted us to read it and we did, with both Rick and I crying by the end of the article. Rick left it to me to “check it out”, and within 2 weeks, to his utter surprise, we were having our home study done. We then decided upon CWA after reading their web page and obtaining materials from them. Our hearts seemed knit to theirs.

We began with thoughts of China but the Lord directed us to Russia. Only He knew where Marina was. Another consideration was that my parents were concerned that they could not love “someone elses” child like they did their “own” grandchildren. Several years before, my mom had even wrote her Will to include only biological grandchildren, excluding any future adopted children.

We received a 58 second video of Marina in May, 1996, with 3 snapshots of her. She was adorable! Blonde hair, dark eyes, fair skinned and a big blue bow in her hair. She was 22 months old at that time, older than we had requested, but how could we resist! And guess who made a special 45 trip to our house to see her video the moment it arrived? My parents! They were instantly drawn to Marina, although they still had their reservations about adoption. We knew she was ours. We were amazed, as were many of those around us, how consumed we were with Marina.

Travel was put on hold in September, because it was discovered that Marina had 4 other older siblings in the orphanage system somewhere. We were told she was unavailable for adoption because of this. We sobbed and sobbed for weeks, our hearts were breaking. I found our then 8 year old daughter Lindsey sitting in her room staring at Marina’s clothes in the closet that she and Marina would share. She was literally sobbing, her heart aching for Marina. Ryan, 7 at that time, would pray in faith each night for Marina to come home. Jonathan, who was then 3 years old, just 11 months older than Marina, would pretend she was laying next to him playing in the floor. He even put her toothbrush next to his, longing for the day she would be home. We were all obsessed with Marina!!

Email was such a blessing in that it connected me to other adoptive families and especially to one couple in particular, Barry and Rebecca Bishop in Cincinnati, Oh. We emailed several times a day, spoke on the telephone and fervently prayed for each other’s families and our babies in Russia. The Lord heard our prayers. We received the joyous news in October that because Marina had never lived with her biological siblings, she was a special exception and we were free to adopt her. They were unable to locate any of Marina’s siblings nor any of her biological family. The Bishops traveled to get their girls in December of 1996 and we followed in February 1997 to finally bring our Marina home.

We stayed 16 days in Russia. Several times a day Marina would look through a small photo album we had brought along for her with pictures of her new brothers and sister, and Grandma and Grandpas, dog, cats, etc. When we returned home, our other 3 children and my parents met us at the airport with the local news station recording the moment we walked off the airplane. Marina immediately ran into the arms of her new sister and brothers, laughing and giggling. She knew them from the photos!

And then the most wonderful of all moments, she turned towards my parents who had been standing back watching, and with a twinkle in her eye she ran and jumped into my Mom’s arms and then into my Dad’s . My once apprehensive, “I don’t know if I can love an adopted grandchild” parents, were melted into mush and fell in love with their new granddaughter. That was a Saturday evening, and on Monday my Mom made a call to her attorney and changed her Will to include Marina Joy Yost.

Marina is a great joy to us. She’s precious, loving, affectionate, intelligent and endearing to everyone who meets her. We thank God for His perfect timing and for the awesome opportunity and privilege to be Marina’s Mommy and Daddy.

Rick & Liz, Lindsey, Ryan, Jonathan & Marina Yost