Been There. Done That.: Lessons from a Life of Faith

By Sally Robinson Yoast

The purpose of this book is to relate lessons we can all learn through our experiences in suffering and through blessings we are given in Gods school of character molding.

It is important to realize that life and living on this earth are only a training ground for God to mold us for our eternal home in heaven.

Please remember to keep in mind as you read of my experiences in life that I give God all glory and praise for His patience and love. My mistakes and heartaches recorded here are to remind the reader that we all have a story to tell.

It is wise to reflect back on memories and to give thanks for answered prayers and Gods grace for our present, past, and future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463441852

Sally Robinson Yoast

Sally Riggs Robinson Yoast is a 78-year-old grandmother and recent great-grandmother. She and her third husband, John Yoast, were residents of Williamsburg, Virginia. They were happily spending their senior years together balancing six sets of married children and twenty-four grandchildren between them. This large family extended from Florida to Pennsylvania, with many places in-between. Their 13-year marriage ended in sadness when John passed away in 2005, leaving Sally a widow for a second time. She still lives in Williamsburg. Sally was born and raised in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Asheville, North Carolina was her childhood home. The peaceful atmosphere of Southern living in a devoted Christian home instilled a solid foundation in Sally that has sustained her through much suffering. Losing her father at the age of 13 in a sudden and unexpected death was the first great sadness of her life. When Sally was 19, she married her high school sweetheart. She and Andy lived a seven-year dream marriage going through their college years and Andy’s ROTC military service, which led them to Kitzingen, Germany for two years. During this period in her life, she traveled extensively throughout Europe, visiting 14countries. Eventually they adopted a precious two-week-old daughter, Lisa. After a year of family life, and to Sally’s great shock, Andy became disenchanted with marriage and sent Sally and Lisa back to the United States with a one-way ticket. Sally then returned to Asheville with Lisa to live with her mother and stepfather, and while there she suffered through a painful divorce and the trauma of becoming a single mother. After a year of transition and uncertainty, Sally met and married a young divorced dentist from Virginia Beach. Roland Robinson was the father of three young daughters, and together he and Sally began raising their four girls. That number soon increased to six, as they had two sons of their own. After 27 years together and six children, their full life ended with Roland’s death in 1991 from lung cancer,leaving Sally alone once again, this time as a 58-year-old widow. During this period of widowhood, Sally wrote her first book, Seasons of a Marriage, which was published in 1993. A remarkably frank and inspirational account of her life, the book was widely read. It recounted Sally’s struggles with heartache, guilt and rejection, and demonstrated how courage and fortitude helped her overcome them. In 1994, Sally met a widowed Presbyterian minister named John Yoast. John had read Seasons of a Marriage and through that experience became interested in Sally. After a courtship of seven months, they were married. After 13 years of blessed happiness, Sally found herself a widow once again as John went to his eternal rest in 2005. Throughout the author’s busy life she has had numerous opportunities to travel extensively, both in the United States and abroad. After her grown children left home, she became a successful businesswoman as a director with Mary Kay cosmetics and as owner (with her husband Roland) of a wholesale jewelry business, for which they traveled to Taipei and Hong Kong. She was a soloist in church choirs from an early age and was active in many churches. She also performed in many theater productions. Sally cherishes her remarkably varied experiences in life, but is most grateful for the moment, at age 33, when she received Christ as her Savior. It was then that she began to work for her Lord in earnest, and since that time has been a Bible teacher and inspirational speaker. Her love of writing has been an inspiration to many and a great fulfillment in her own spiritual adventure. Her belief in Holy Scripture has become the backbone of her life. In Philippians 3.7, the Apostle Paul, who had been an educated Pharisee, wrote: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” For Sally, all else in life is worthless compared to the priceless joy of knowing Christ. This book, Been There. Done That., is the product of a lifetime of experience in faith. The author hopes that the lessons she has learned in that life will be an inspiration to others.

Book preview

BEEN THERE.

DONE THAT.

Lessons From A Life Of Faith

Sally Robinson Yoast

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2011 by Sally Robinson Yoast. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse   08/27/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4634-4187-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-4186-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-4185-2 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011913185

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

A Note to the Reader

About the Author

Part One Andy and Lisa

Beginnings

Lemonade Out of Lemons The Story of Lisa’s Adoption

Vital Lessons Learned From My Tragic Divorce

Been There, Done That

Hard Knocks of a Divorce

Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way

Part Two Roland

Roland The Beginning of My Second Marriage

Was I Dreaming?

Tides Inn

Virginia Beach

Capsule Memories of a Happy Home

A Safe Place

My Changed Life Help Was on the Way

Lessons Learned

The Skiing Crisis

The Toupee

Adjusting to Change

Mining

Crabbing

Change The Beginning of Miracles

The Last Years: Autumn

Roland’s Favorite Place

Brotherly Love

If Only

Shopping for One

Grow Old Gracefully

Part Three John

Bloom Where You Are Planted

First Roland, Then John From Grief to Joy

Blessings John

The Beginning

John

John The Man Who Taught Me The Meaning of Love

A Golden Memory

John A Macho Police Story

John’s Last Days

Part Four Golden Nuggets

Memories of Yesterday

Grace

The Nursing Home Stay

Silent Words

The Spiritual Shift, From Feeling to Faith

God’s Spiritual Tape Measure

Push to Keep Going but Rest in the Lord

Ridding Yourself of Bitterness and Anger

The Stillness of Solitude

Grandparenting

A Prayer for Seniors

Some Final Advice for Seniors

In Loving Memory of

John Yoast

A Note to the Reader

The purpose of this book is to relate lessons we can all learn through our experiences in suffering and through blessings we are given in God’s school of character molding.

It is important to realize that life and living on this earth are only a training ground for God to mold us for our eternal home in heaven.

Please remember to keep in mind as you read of my experiences in life that I give God all glory and praise for His patience and love. My mistakes and heartaches recorded here are to remind the reader that we all have a story to tell. It is wise to reflect back on memories and to give thanks for answered prayers and God’s grace for our present, past, and future.

About the Author

Sally Riggs Robinson Yoast is a 78-year-old grandmother and recent great-grandmother. She and her third husband, John Yoast, were residents of Williamsburg, Virginia. They were happily spending their senior years together balancing six sets of married children and twenty-four grandchildren between them. This large family extended from Florida to Pennsylvania, with many places in between.

Their 13-year marriage ended in sadness when John passed away in 2005, leaving Sally a widow for a second time. She still lives in Williamsburg.

Sally was born and raised in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Asheville, North Carolina was her childhood home.

The peaceful atmosphere of Southern living in a devoted Christian home instilled a solid foundation in Sally that has sustained her through much suffering. Losing her father at the age of 13 in a sudden and unexpected death was the first great sadness of her life.

When Sally was 19, she married her high school sweetheart. She and Andy lived a seven-year dream marriage going through their college years and Andy’s ROTC military service, which led them to Kitzingen, Germany for two years. During this period in her life, she traveled extensively throughout Europe, visiting 14 countries. Eventually they adopted a precious two-week-old daughter, Lisa.

After a year of family life, and to Sally’s great shock, Andy became disenchanted with marriage and sent Sally and Lisa back to the United States with a one-way ticket. Sally then returned to Asheville with Lisa to live with her mother and stepfather, and while there she suffered through a painful divorce and the trauma of becoming a single mother.

After a year of transition and uncertainty, Sally met and married a young divorced dentist from Virginia Beach. Roland Robinson was the father of three young daughters, and together he and Sally began raising their four girls. That number soon increased to six, as they had two sons of their own.

After 27 years together and six children, their full life ended with Roland’s death in 1991 from lung cancer, leaving Sally alone once again, this time as a 58-year-old widow.

During this period of widowhood, Sally wrote her first book, Seasons of a Marriage, which was published in 1993. A remarkably frank and inspirational account of her life, the book was widely read. It recounted Sally’s struggles with heartache, guilt and rejection, and demonstrated how courage and fortitude helped her overcome them.

In 1994, Sally met a widowed Presbyterian minister named John Yoast. John had read Seasons of a Marriage and through that experience became interested in Sally. After a courtship of seven months, they were married.

After 13 years of blessed happiness, Sally found herself a widow once again as John went to his eternal rest in 2005.

Throughout the author’s busy life she has had numerous opportunities to travel extensively, both in the United States and abroad.

After her grown children left home, she became a successful businesswoman as a director with Mary Kay cosmetics and as owner (with her husband Roland) of a wholesale jewelry business, for which they traveled to Taipei and Hong Kong.

She was a soloist in church choirs from an early age and was active in many churches. She also performed in many theater productions.

Sally cherishes her remarkably varied experiences in life, but is most grateful for the moment, at age 33, when she received Christ as her Savior. It was then that she began to work for her Lord in earnest, and since that time has been a Bible teacher and inspirational speaker.

Her love of writing has been an inspiration to many, and a great fulfillment in her own spiritual adventure. Her belief in Holy Scripture has become the backbone of her life.

In Philippians 3.7, the Apostle Paul, who had been an educated Pharisee, wrote:

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss

for the sake of Christ."

For Sally, all else in life is worthless compared to the priceless joy of knowing Christ.

This book, Been There. Done That., is the product of a lifetime of experience in faith. The author hopes that the lessons she has learned in that life will be an inspiration to others.

Part One

Andy and Lisa

Beginnings

We were high school sweethearts.

We were in colleges in Raleigh and engaged.

We were married for four years while in college, playing house and enjoying life.

After college Andy was sent by the Army to Kitzingen, Germany. Naturally, I went with him.

We spent our first and second years traveling.

And then our lives changed.

Marriage, 1952, Asheville, NC

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Lemonade Out of Lemons

The Story of Lisa’s Adoption

When we are young, we make decisions based on our desires. Many of those decisions can be unwise, as they affect our futures in different ways.

But our loving Father can channel our desires despite our mistakes. This story about my impulsive act is an example of how God made Lemonade out of a Bitter Lemon.

Psalm 139 tells us that God plans with great precision for all his creatures. As He creates us, He also places us just where He wants us to be. He chooses our parents and, in some cases, removes us from one parent in favor of another more suitable one. This is all part of His plan.

In the case of my daughter Lisa, He moved mountains to accomplish His will. He had a purpose in allowing me, her mother, to travel to Germany, adopt her, and bring her back to the United States—the country He chose for her.

I was a 26-year old military housewife stationed in Kitzingen, a small town in the Bavarian state of Germany. As stated before, my husband Andy and I had married young, after a high school courtship, while we were still in college. Our life together was full of fun and wild times. We were free and wealthy and we took full advantage of it.

After college, Andy had military obligations to fulfill, so when, as a young Army lieutenant, he was stationed in Germany for a three-year tour, his young wife tagged along. We lived in military housing and were delighted at the prospect of seeing that part of the world at Uncle Sam’s expense.

There were, of course, many weeks of living apart, since part of Andy’s duty consisted of field training. Quite unknown to me, this was the beginning of the end of our marriage. The drinking became heavier, the separations became longer, and my husband became a stranger to me. I felt I was boring him, and I was.

I do not believe that it is God’s will for couples to divorce, but sometimes He turns our mistakes and stubbornness to His own purposes. I now know that this is just what He was doing with me.

I was trying desperately to save my marriage, and Andy and I were trying to have a child, but finally tests showed that Andy was sterile. This was a considerable shock to his male ego, and it drove him further to alcohol and further away from our marriage.

As with most married military wives who were without children, I filled most of my days visiting friends, playing bridge, doing volunteer work, and traveling. The countdown for God’s intervention had begun.

On a Thursday in August I attended a monthly bridge party. Our hostess that day was obviously upset at having found herself unable to adopt a beautiful ten-day-old baby girl. She had promised the child’s mother, who was unwed, that she wanted the baby, but her husband was adamant that he wanted a son. That was that.

Do any of you know someone who would like a child at this time? she asked us.

Flushed with excitement, I said that I would be interested. I had felt for some time that a child might save my troubled marriage, and since it was now certain that we could not produce a child on our own, I saw this as a possible solution.

That night when Andy came home and I told him about our opportunity, he was tired and unenthusiastic. He was to leave the next morning for yet another week in the field for training, so I persuaded him to go with me to see the little girl and her mother, who were in a small Catholic hospital for unwed mothers and babies in a village nearby.

As we approached the dark Catholic home, Andy was clearly apprehensive. The night was dark and the front walk seemed a forbidding tunnel surrounded by untended shrubbery.

We knocked on the