Nicole (00 : 01)

All right. Welcome to the show.

Yvonne (00 : 03)

Well, thank you. I'm very glad to be here and to be chatting with you.

Nicole (00 : 07)

Awesome. tell the audience a little bit about yourself. You have your bio, and you've done wonderful things, and you've helped thousands of people. But how would you describe yourself to others?

Yvonne (00 : 22)

I'm very much a down to earth person. I've always been a person of faith all my life. My parents had me in church from a early age and I have always been one that followed what God wants me to do. And I'm a very much a person that will say yes to God and figure out what's gonna come next. And I love adventure. I love going and doing new things and trying out things. And it's been a journey so far.

Nicole (00 : 52)

Oh, wow. So you're one of those people that just say yes and just give it to God. You say, you know, God, if you want me to do it, I'm gonna do it. I don't understand it, but I'm just gonna believe that you are lighting the path for me.

Yvonne (01 : 08)

Exactly. And when you do that, yeah, a lot of times, you don't know what you're getting into. But, boy, it's been an incredible ride. When I think back over some of the experiences I've had I can't imagine my life not with not having those experiences. Because he's been awesome on things. Not everything is perfect. But, boy, he takes you on adventures. I'm telling you who

Nicole (01 : 31)

We could talk about adventures all day long. Adventures with God.

Nicole (01 : 36)

Title of a book, huh?

Yvonne (01 : 38)

No, that might be. Have to be one

Nicole (01 : 46)

I know about 29 years ago you had a loss in your family. You lost your son. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yvonne (01 : 56)

Yes. Um, we have two daughters that they were both older than our son. William was our third child. We had always been a family that wanted a son. Um, my husband's aunt used to say, Oh, look a girl when you're having the next one. And so we wanted that boy. And so we got pregnant a third time. Um, everything went as planned. You know, we didn't think anything was wrong. All the appointments were great. Um, and then came I did go into labor about a month early. Um, and my doctor wasn't real worried about that. You know, He just thought, you know, sometimes that happens. But then once our son was born, um, I remember my husband. They said it's a boy. And we've already had the name William Charles picked out. My husband went running out of the room, uh, to go tell all the family that was in the hospital. And I can remember my doctor turning and looking at me and he go, he tried to stop my husband, they couldn't catch up. And he said to me, There's a problem. Um, s So by the time my husband walked back into the room, it was a very different environment. Um, and my o b g y n set us down and said we're gonna have to bring in specialist, But your your son has whole lot of health issues. Um, we did get a specialized doctor come in that does genetic testing. And she came in on and took one look at him and said, I'll use the term It's Tetra. So me nine p um, which is he had four tops on his ninth chroma zone on, and I can remember asking the doctor I said, Oh, so like, Down syndrome and him kind of patting my hand and saying, Oh, honey, you're not that like Andi, he lived to be nine days old. Um and his chart was probably two inches thick with everything that was wrong with them, from enlarged heart to with blood flowed backwards in his body. Teoh my God, yeah, yeah. So not anything we ever expected. Like, said, had our daughters. Everything went there. Fine. There's 33 30 now. Everything seemed perfect. Then, like said, um, within nine days, he was gone, so we could have done a few surgeries, you know? But the doctor set us down and had some heart to heart. And it's like, you know, why are you doing the surgeries? Because we knew he was the only ninth reported case with the child being born with this condition, and they said he there's no way he's gonna live beyond a year, in the world in the world. It's a very rare genetic condition on and they said, You know, if you're going to do the surgeries, your only doing it for you, you're not. You know, it's not like it's going to change his life. So why do it? And we went home well, went to church after that visit and spend a lot of time on our knees at the church and visiting with our pastors and that, and decided not to do anything. Let God take the course and go with it from there.

Nicole (05 : 00)

Wow, that had to be a hard decision.

Yvonne (05 : 04)

It was. it was. that was probably are that several things throughout the event that really stick in your mind? And I can remember that night coming home and laying in bed and just screaming at God. And it's like because the doctors told us we needed to make a decision and sign paperwork that do not resuscitate. And I can remember screaming at God, Why are you making me make that decision? Um, but we had to and, you know, we put it in God's hands and It's like Okay, God, if this child's meant to live, you'll make You'll make him live no matter what we do. So But if not,

Nicole (05 : 40)

Yeah, it's your will, right?

Yvonne (05 : 42)

Yeah, it's your will. It

Nicole (05 : 43)

Was his will, And you understood that. And so

Yvonne (05 : 47)

Didn't like it, but understood it.

Nicole (05 : 49)

Absolutely. Absolutely. And how did you heal? Because your a mom.

Yvonne (05 : 53)

It took quite a while. Um, I remember at about a year getting close to him, being gone for a year, going to the doctor is like, Look, I just don't feel good. Um, he asked, and that's with my regular doctor, Not my o b g y n. And he's like, Well, what's been going on in your life? And I told him, and he kind of looked at me, goes, Oh, honey, you're depressed and like and then that made me feel even worse. I hate to say it, but, you know, depression wasn't something. I wanted to ever think of what happened to me. But I said, you know, and we talked a lot and you know, he said, I could prescribe you medicine, he goes. But with a situation like this, you've got to go through it to get to the other side. And so he said, We're not he We joined several support groups for people who had lost Children, especially infant Children. Um, I can remember the first meeting. We went. I told my husband they're doing a Christmas service at at the hospital for these families and I said, I want to go And afterwards they said, Okay, we're going to do the meeting and I said to my husband, I'm going, He goes, I'm not. And I said, Okay, come back in a now and a half and he's like, Fine. And we went and we were. We went. We were part of that group for probably a couple of years, and that really helped a lot. Just a here, other families because say, I feel that way because you have all these feelings that you don't know how to put into words, or when you do, you scare people by saying, I'm you know, because I could remember saying, I wish I wouldn't wake up tomorrow morning. Not that I wanted to kill myself. I wanted just it all to end, and other people understood that, like oh, I have felt that way, And it's so. But it didn't cause them to panic, to think Oh, she's suicidal. They understood. It's just I just want this pain to end.

Nicole (07 : 40)

They were able to relate with your pain, and it's nice to be in a room with someone that understands what you've gone through and cried the same tears that you've cried and understood the walk in the journey that you were on. So good for you, for for reaching out and really taking ownership over your healing. And that's exactly what you did. So good for you.

Yvonne (08 : 05)

Yeah, and I had read several different books that our Doctors recommend, you know, And the one thing that stuck out, especially after the death of a child. 80% of marriages fail after the death of a child is like, You know, I read that nice book, my husband and we talked. It's like, that's not gonna be us . We are going to get through this somehow, you know, with God putting him in the middle of it. But, you know, we made that determination. We were gonna get through this and come out better people on the other side.

Nicole (08 : 33)

Wonderful. Wonderful. Now from that. You really took that pain and you turned it into purpose, right? What you did was you. You, along with your husband, founded an orphan relief effort and you built two orphanages. Tell me a little bit about that.

Yvonne (08 : 51)

Well, it all started. I was at a church about again about 18 months, two years after our son was gone on. But we were at our annual church meeting and they were doing all kinds of church business. And they were counting votes and in between, you know, for different elected positions and in between they had different people doing presentations. And this group did a presentation on a mission trip that was going to Haiti the next summer. From this time and just as soon as they start talking we felt the spirit nudge me and say, You need to go. And I thought, nope. And kind of laughed it off and then felt it again. And then my husband came back from doing something I said, I think I'm supposed to go on this mission trip. And he laughed because, as he said, has always said, My idea of roughing anything is a Holiday inn versus the Motel 6. So he's like, You can't do a missionary, Meaning not capable. Not that he didn't want me to do it. We went on that mission trip and and then once I came back and we worked with Children in Haiti orphans and feeding program and came back from that trip and went on a couple more and and each mission trip, we worked with Children and I realized, OK, there's something here. Um, after that my first, the first trip to Haiti. My husband did not go because he never felt called after that. He's been on everyone since then. Um and finally, in the year 2000, we went to Kenya. Um, and with a determination is like, Okay, we've done all we have done three other mission trips. At this point, it's like, let's go and figure out what God's really calling us to do. Back then, there were a number of orphans all over Africa, especially Kenya from the AIDS epidemic. And so we came home and we had visited several orphanages while we were there, and I can remember laying in bed at night after that trip and just hearing those Children calling to us. So started working there. Worked there for about 10 years. Um, the government lots of issues there with the government. That so, um but that's what sparked the idea to do the orphan relief effort and help orphans. Um, we then ended up after 10 years we built orphanages in Kathmandu, Nepal, and in Myanmar, which people know as Burma, um, in Southeast Asia. And so, between the two, we have about 60 Children that we take care of them.

Yvonne (11 : 46)

Oh, it is. it is. And you know, we always joke when we go visit because we tried to go this year but because of covid. But we try to visit at least once a year. Go to one of them, you know, we always joke. They will call us mom and dad. And so it's like we have 55 extra Children now. So I lost one and gained a whole bunch more.

Nicole (12 : 08)

Oh, look at God, right?

Yvonne (12 : 10)

Yeah. God! And even though we don't work with the orphanage in Kenya anymore Ah, lot of those girls because our orphanage in Kenya was all girls on bond as they have grown up and moved out on their own and that they've all a bunch of them. I think I'd probably keep up with about 15 of them through Facebook, and, you know, it's just wonderful. They let me know what's going on in their lives, and it's just we just have all these this family all over the world that God gave to us. It's been wonderful

Nicole (12 : 39)

That's phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. Cool. Kudos to you, though. Kudos to you for doing that and continuing to always say, you know the word of God tells us what we've done to the least of them you have done unto me, and you are really fulfilling that call in that mission to the least of them. So God bless you for what you're doing. You're welcome. But you are also an author. You're the author of two books. Is that correct?

Yvonne (13 : 09)

Two books so far that's from or coming out,

Nicole (13 : 14)

And the first book was turning Mountains into Mole Hills. And the second one, your newest release, is Rest in God, the prayer journal. Is that correct? OK, that's correct. So talk to me a little bit about turning mountains into molehills, because normally you say you're turning your told in a mole hill into a mountain.

Yvonne (13 : 36)

Yeah, way did it backwards, and it was on one of our mission trips. My husband came up with the saying and it just that part stuck, um, where he said, You know, you can look at something and it's a mountain and God can change it into a mole hill. And so just in saying, you know these things we see out there that we think are impossible But nothing is impossible with God. And so he changes are mountains into molehills, and then it makes it easy to dio or easier. Um, and that book is basically the 20 year journey in our mission work and just all the incredible things God has shown us through that the different miracles we've been able to witness the heartbreak we've been through with some of the situations in just that German part of our journey. So It's a memoir of that part of, and that's how this all started, because I don't I generally don't say no to God. Um, and I kept having this nudge to write this book. It's like you've been doing this work for 20 years. You have some stories that I have given you. You need to write them down. And I was never a writer. I'm accountant by my trade. I love numbers, don't like words too much. And so I kept saying, No, God kept saying, Yeah, I want you to do this and finally said, Okay, Lord, if this is from you and not just me wanting to be unauthorized, let Bill asked me about it someday. And so things went away for a little while in about a month later, we're sitting in the living room one night and my husband looks over at me and goes, and I've never said any of this to my husband. He knows nothing, but he looked at me and he said, So how's that book coming? Oh, and I started crying. Yeah, I start crying and feels like what I told him. He goes. I guess you're going to write a book, and it's like I guess I am so And that's how Turning Mountains into molehills came into being

Nicole (15 : 30)

Awesome. Awesome. And talk to me about your second book, The Prayer

Yvonne (15 : 33)

Journal. Yeah, and again, God works in mysterious ways, Whole Cove. It stuff came about this year, you know, and we're all stressed. We're all it's, causing more stress, and it probably should, because we're need to trust God. But I know I was feeling it on DSO. I decided. I need to post I've got a Twitter account. And so it's like I need to post a prayer each morning in each evening on Twitter to help me and to help those out there just because we're all in that same boat. And so I started doing this and I had a publishing company contact me and said, We've seen your prayers that you're posting. Have you ever thought of writing a prayer journal? I'm like, No, I said, But hey, if you're contacting me, let's talk. And sure enough, we talked about it and it took about four or five months. It was really a fast process, and we have resting. Got a prayer journal now which has a hunt. It's got 100 prayers and Bible verses in it that people can use daily to help them through the struggles of life. And then it's got a section where you can journal. So you contract as you pray for something specific. You can track how God responds.

Nicole (16 : 46)

Awesome. Awesome. Well, congratulations on your on the journal and on your journey, because it sounds like you have been set up by God.

Yvonne (16 : 57)

It feels that way. And I've got another one coming out. Hopefully in January, I think is the target. Um, it's ah, more of a Bible study, um, finding faith, hope and love in a broken world. And then I'm next year. I've got to Christian Children's books coming out. So

Nicole (17 : 15)

You are busy and you are a covert survivor. Is that correct?

Yvonne (17 : 20)

Yes. Yep. Just in fact, got diagnosed on, uh, just this last week with it. So, luckily, praise the Lord. It's been both my husband. I we've had mild cases. It's still not fun, but it hasn't been too bad. So just treating it at home and and lots of prayers with from family and friends keeping us going

Nicole (17 : 40)

Absolutely. Um and I will definitely have you both in my prayers and we just believing God for total healing. And so thank you gonna be another story after this?

Yvonne (17 : 50)

Yeah, I know. I know. It's always interesting to see where God's going to take you on things

Nicole (17 : 55)

I'm telling you. So you von talked to me a little bit about how you would encourage that that brother, that sister, that is going through what you have gone through in the past, you know, breathing in it is an encouraging word toe, a brother or sister. It's a moment of hope, inspiration, their solutions. And we could have someone right now that's feeling down and depressed and feeling like you were at one time that did not want to move on. Didn't want to go on. How would you minister to that individual if they were standing in front of you or if they're listening right now

Yvonne (18 : 32)

And a lot of times we get the question too. Why does God let these things happen and you know it. God doesn't cause these things to happen, you know, because of sin in the world. You know, the background. Um, these things happen in life and God wants to see through it all how we respond. Because when I kept going to church, you know, um, I kept connected. I prayed a lot. That's what I would encourage others to dio. I kept praying even though a lot of times I felt like my prayers were getting us faras the ceiling and no further kept going to church sat in the back so nobody would talk to me. Um, but just kept that connection. Just kept that connection going the whole time because I knew if anything was going to get me through this, God was the only one who could. Because it was such a devastating event that nothing else was going to get me through it, even though at times I was angry with him and I told him that, and it's okay to be angry with God at these situations. He doesn't want them toe happen, but they do happen. And so he understands. And I remember I got a journal that I kept during some of that time, and I've got a whole page of where I just kept writing. Why in all different fonts and sizes and different color pans. And sometimes I still wonder why. You know, looking back, I can see what came from it. But it would still not be nice to have my son here with us, especially if we come up on Christmas. There's still times. It's a tough tough to go through because I'll never have a complete family at a Christmas meal. Never have a complete family for this event or that event. Um, but God gets you through it, and he's He's the only thing that's going to get you through it without losing really, truly losing your sanity.

Nicole (20 : 25)

It sounds like you're saying, You're saying, Stay connected, Stay

Yvonne (20 : 28)

Connected to the source. Yep, and even if you're angry, still stay connected.

Nicole (20 : 34)

Awesome. How can the audience get in touch with you? How can they purchase the book? How can they reach out? What's your website?

Yvonne (20 : 40)

My website is y There's a place you can put your prayer request. You can just send me a message if you want to my books are on there, both of them, and any future books will be on there. I also blog weekly, and so my copy of my blog's shows up on there.

Nicole (21 : 42)

Very nice. Very nice. Now, that has been our time. Thank you so much for stopping by the show and sharing your story.

Yvonne (21 : 50)

Well, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed it. And I hope some of you reach out there. I'd love to communicate with some of you. Awesome.

Nicole (21 : 56)