Finally

It came! It finally came!!! We got our I-171H!!!!!! I am so beyond excited! This was the document that we have been waiting for. We are so close to being DTC (Dossier to China). WOW! This is amazing!! We're coming Chayah!!! We have waited and waited for this and now it's finally here!! We got our I-171H!!!!!!!!!!! Now that we have this document, we should have our dossier off to China within the next few weeks. After that we’ll wait approximately 3-4 months for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) and Travel Approval (TA) from China to come get Chayah! So with our dossier off to China in June, 3-4 months is travel in September-October of this year. Wow! This is actually real, and I am so excited! Not too much longer now… we’re almost there Chayah!

Also, I wanted to share about a contest that I just won. I absolutely love The Chronicles of Narnia, the books and now the movies too. So when I heard one of the credit songs, and it reminded me of adoption, that was just awesome. I found a contest on Land of Broken Hearts and decided to enter. You were to write what the song "This is Home" by Switchfoot meant to you. Click HERE to read the lyrics of the song. I entered, not really expecting anything because there were a lot of entries. And then this morning I got an email stating that my entry had been chosen as the runner-up for the contest! My entry is about Chayah and her journey home, which this song really reminded me of. Here is my entry from the website:

Now the runner up, (winner of the Prince Caspian soundtrack) is... Anastacia! Here is her entry!:

When I first heard "This Is Home" my immediate thought was of my little sister. That may seem strange, however, my case is different than others. My little sister is six years old and lives in China. She has lived in China all of her life. We are adopting her. To me "This Is Home" truly showed me the significance of this process. For her, coming to America and starting a new life as a six year old, she will always have the memories of her time before us, her family. But coming here is a new start for her and she will become a member of this family forever. She won't go back, at least never in the same way. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian does have many similarities to this process of adoption. Caspian is the newcomer, the one who doesn't quite "fit" yet into the group. He grows into being a part of that group and at the end, Peter hands over the reigns of Narnia to him. Lucy is the faith of the story. Always holding true to Aslan and never giving up. This Is Home signifies to me the story of faith in adoption, created for a place you never knew and coming Home.

We loved Anastacia's story, it really touched on us on a profound level.