Student with rare limb disorder volunteers to help others

By Emily Gibson

Section Editor

On the morning of May 12, Irina Yeakley stood before an officer at the Ukrainian border, where she was questioned about her Russian ethnicity and suspected of possibly hiding something. 

“The officer was staring into my soul as if she were trying to see if I was a spy or knew the Russian language, so I tried not to freak out and acted as casual and normal as possible,” said Irina “She (the officer) was not happy, but she let me through.”

Irina let out a sigh of relief as her van, one of the six carrying humanitarian aid, passed over safely into war-stricken Lviv, Ukraine. 

The Russian-born but American-raised 21-year-old Trevecca student was in Europe during the Russo-Ukrainian war after the opportunity arose for her to foretaste the life she believes God has called her to lead as one of two million people in the United States with limb differences.

“She is truly the hands and feet of Jesus for those who do not have hands and feet,” said Wayne Kent, former pastor of First Christian Church in Decatur, IL. 

Irina was born with amniotic band syndrome — a condition in which the bands in the womb constrict the child’s limbs and cause physical abnormalities like the ones Irina had: partial fingers, missing fingers, and a stunted leg.

Irina’s birth parents could not provide her with the care she would need, so they put her in an orphanage where there was hope for her to find a family. 

Meanwhile, in Decatur, Illinois, Tim and Jennifer Yeakley, who adopted two children from Russia only a year previous, heard about Irina and began to pray for the right family to adopt her.

“As we continued to pray for her, my husband asked, ‘Do you ever get a feeling that we’re praying for ourselves?’” said Jennifer. “At that time, I had a two, three, and four-year-old, so I wasn’t really thinking that, but then I asked for a picture of Irina, and, yes, we absolutely were.”

The Yeakleys left for Russia, but while there, their interpreter said she could not understand how the Yeakleys could believe in a God who would do what he did to Irina. 

“I believed it had everything to do with what God could do through her life, and now her whole life mission is based on giving God glory,” said Jennifer. 

Irina said her earliest memory is after her first amputation at three years old, after which she underwent several reconstruction surgeries to repair her leg and to separate the fingers on her right hand, which were linked together like a mitten, as she describes them.

The doctors said she would never wiggle or use her fingers individually, but Irina soon discovered she could and went on to play several sports throughout her time at Decatur Christian School, including basketball, where she played point guard and served as team captain for three years. 

On Jan. 3, 2019, Irina was recognized as Hero of the Week by WAND-TV News, and when they asked her how she did it, Irina said she doesn’t let a disability prevent her from doing what she loves, and when she wants to achieve something, she works hard to accomplish it.

Between her sophomore and junior years of high school, Irina found out about camps hosted by the NubAbility Athletics Foundation, which exists to encourage, inspire, and instruct limb different youth by getting them out of the stands, off the bench, and into mainstream sports. 

Irina decided to attend. 

“I remember sitting there and almost bawling my eyes out because it was the first time I’d met a group of people who were like me,” said Irina, who started out as a camper and now coaches basketball at the camp each summer. 

It was also there that Irina met a woman named Sabrina, an above-the-knee amputee, who told Irina about Amputee Blade Runners, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping lower-limb different athletes of all ages maintain a healthy lifestyle by providing the equipment they need free of charge. 

“I had a Shriner’s leg at the time, and it was great to walk with, but it wasn’t very flexible,” said Irina. “I played sports with it, and I would constantly break the foot or the toes off.”

Irina applied for a blade runner prosthetic and, upon approval, traveled to their headquarters in Nashville to be fitted. Little did Irina realize at the time she would return to Nashville several years later as a transfer student at Trevecca and an employee for Amputee Blade Runners.

While a senior in high school, Irina said she felt a call from God to do missions in Eastern Europe, but she was unsure at the time when or how she would do so. 

Last April, Irina called pastor Kent to ask him about his experience overseas, and before the call ended, he invited her to go with him, his wife, and a few others on their trip to Poland. The only caveat was she would have to go with them into Ukraine for a day and night.

On the afternoon of May 12, Irina made it past the Ukrainian border, and after a full day of unloading the humanitarian aid from the vans for the community of Lviv and those at the front line, the crew settled in for the night. While asleep, two kamikaze drones flew into Lviv several miles away and exploded, causing the air raid sirens to go off.

“I remember being woken up and sort of realizing that as surreal as that was, it was a common experience for the Ukrainians,” said Kent. “There was no other place to go, so we just literally laid in our beds and trusted we were safe.”

And they were.

Irina said she left that trip wondering about all of the people who had likely lost limbs in the war, and a few ideas have since crossed her mind as to how she might be able to help those individuals one day.

“The idea crossed my mind to come back one day to minister to people with limb loss and maybe start a camp like nubability,” said Irina. “I don’t know how it’s going to work out in the future, but I trust Him.” 

For now, Irina plans to finish her degree in Intercultural Studies, continue her work for BladeRunners in Nashville, and encourage as many as she can. In her free time, Irina can be seen with her star-wars-themed Blade Runner, enjoying a run on campus, or chatting with her newest friend, Wayne, a bilateral amputee and resident of the Trevecca Towers.

Irina saw Wayne while on a run, stopped to talk to him, invited him to church, and the two have since become good friends.

“I didn’t expect her to stay in touch, but she has because she cares for people,” said Wayne. “She brought me a Christmas and a birthday gift, and that’s special.”