Local family's four adopted children let couple fulfill dreams

By Tony Pennington

Transcript Staff Writer

Gathered around the family dining room table Sunday afternoon were the four pieces to Lonna and James Yeary's hearts: William, 20, Lauren, 18, Collin, 15, and Parker, 6.

The parents smiled with their pride barely contained under the surface as the typical family dynamic played out. William and Lauren traded playful quips while Collin sat quietly amused by the banter. And then there was Parker. The first grade ball of energy bounced from the table to the kitchen and occasionally behind a large couch cushion.

There was the occasional fatherly admonishment that briefly restored order, but when these four get together the Yeary home is full of the youthful energy that James, 50, and Lonna, 48, thought they could never have.

James and Lonna met as University of Oklahoma students in 1975. James had been in Norman since 1967, and Lonna's family had long been established in the city. By 1978 the couple married and planned to start a family.

"We talked about it before we got married," Lonna explained. "We decided to have two birth children and then adopt."

Adoption had a special meaning for James. He was adopted and his grandparents rode the "orphan train" to Kansas where they were adopted. And when the Yearys learned they weren't capable of having their own children, adoption became the only way to complete the family the two so dearly wanted.

Lonna hit the phones and contacted different agencies. But was soon discouraged by the results.

"The waiting list was so long ... the first one was three to five years," she said.

James, who was working as a dentist, was informed by a patient about the Dillon International Adoption Service out of Tulsa. That proved to be the best piece of news for the family.

Through the agency, the Yearys were told children were available in South Korea. It could have been the Moon. They had a home that was empty without children.

"At the time they only placed children from Korea," Lonna recalled. "I didn't care. I just wanted to be a mom."

Lonna became a mother for the first time Dec. 17, 1986, when she and James flew to South Korea to pick up 10 1/2-month-old William.