Adoption Stories....YaYa

I spell her name YaYa because that's what we all called her last summer when our group went to the orphanage. Her name is actually Myla PeiYao Trammel now. They called her YaoYao at the Big O, but we Americanized it to YaYa, and I will call her that for the rest of my life! My friend Gina and her son Ethan, went on the mission trip last year. We met up in Beijing and stuck together ever since. I immediately felt a connection to Gina and her sweet son Ethan! Gina fell in love with YaYa the second, and I mean the second she layed eyes on her. There was an undeniable connection. It was amazing. Here is a photo taken last summer. Gina already knew that YaYa was her daughter to be one day!! Only one thing left to do....go home and tell her husband that she had fallen in love with a little girl with repaired spina bifida....not one of the conditions she and her husband had agreed they could handle along with their already 3 biological children. But it was clear to him soon enough that God had chosen this little YaYa for them, no matter what special need was listed on her medical papers!


Over the next few months after our China trip last summer Gina and I would spend hours on the phone crying and talking and going through all sorts of feelings. By adopting her YaYa and my Lily, we would be out of our comfort zones, out of our original plans, and possibly out on a limb! We talked about all the practical things, would YaYa ever walk, did Lily have severe mental delay, how would we be able to care for these children already each of us having three biological children. In the beginning of our adoption journeys years ago our families had each applied to adopt a "healthy" baby girl....but all that had changed! It became clear to us that this was God's plan all along and He had known it. He was just waiting for us to figure it out and say YES!

Here is a photo of YaYa being held by a nanny from the orphanage on the day that YaYa officially was given to the Trammel family! Proud brothers on each side! Look at little YaYa in her rapster outfit!

And here is YaYa today! With her family! A mommy and a daddy and two brothers and sweet big sister Zoe! And they could never imagine life without YaYa in it!!!




Look at YaYa in her traditional Chinese outfit!


I think she is one of the cutest babies I've ever seen in my life! After Husband met her in the airport when they came home from China he looked at me later in the car and said, "Boy that little YaYa sure is cute! Is our baby gonna be that cute?" in a joking way. Then I said, "I don't know! How can you get any cuter?!"


Family Fun is instant with a big family!


Beach Baby! I don't think YaYa would ever have seen the ocean unless someone got her out of that orphanage and say YES, WE WILL TAKE YAYA, NO MATTER WHAT! I'm so glad the Trammel's did!


And by the way, YaYa CAN walk! Praise the Lord. We believe little YaYa to be healed in the Name of Jesus, every part of her body. Praise God!