Our Christmas Miracle...APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WARNING: Chatty Cathy post

I've been keeping a little secret because, quite frankly, it was too good to be true. I just received confirmation that I am NOT living in a dream world. This is NOT a hoax. This is NOT my friend ANONYMOUS playing a trick on me. This is REALLY happening! We have been APPROVED BY USCIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have explained it before but here's the short version. After the Hague Treaty went into effect 4-1-08, the immigration process became longer and much more time consuming. More homestudy information, more criteria to include, more time to review...you get the picture. So basically you submit your application, receive a log in date and wait 90-120 days before you are assigned an officer. They send the corrections, if any, you fix them and then when they get around to reviewing your application again you get approved.

When we returned from Walt Disney World I found an email without a subject from someone named Mr. Michael _______ dated 11-12-08. I didn't even open it thinking it was spam. Ha! When I finally got around to it I was greeted by "I have reviewed your case and attached is the request for additional evidence for the home study deficiencies..." My initial thought was "YEAH RIGHT! I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. I'm not falling for THAT one". It has only been a month since we were logged in. I truly believed my amigas were trying to pull one over on me by setting up a bogus email account while I was away. Then, I looked a little more closely at the letter and discovered that "Mr. Michael _______" had official USCIS letterhead and information that my ANONYMOUS friends would never have known...our case number, our USCIS account number, etc. Then the panic set in...

HOW IN THE HECK HAVE WE ALREADY BEEN REVIEWED??????????? There are people with August log in dates that haven't been assigned an officer yet?????? We were logged in mid OCTOBER??????????? How did this happen????????? I'm EXCITED, CONFUSED, ECSTATIC, CAUTIOUS, etcetcetc...

Then came the question...do I tell my adoption friends or do I wait to see if this pans out? The obvious answer: DO NOT TELL ANYONE! That quickly changed to DO NOT TELL ANYONE THAT MIGHT TELL USCIS THEY MESSED UP. So, I haven't breathed a word to any of my I800A buddies. Why? Because I know it is not fair that our petition was reviewed out of order. What's a girl to do? Tell USCIS they messed up? Tell them to put us back in line so we can wait a few more months? NOPE. Sorry. Their boo-boo. Our benefit.

Then came the let's hurry up and fix the issues so we can get this joker APPROVED. The changes were very minor wording issues so it shouldn't take more than half an hour to corrent. Well, that would have been easy if the agency person who needed to approve the changes and sign an ORIGINAL copy had not been in CHINA...literally...in CHINA! She came home a week and half after I received the notice (the day before Thanksgiving). Then our Social Worker was out of town until Monday for the holiday. They missed each other by a couple of hours. Ugh! Talk about hurry up and wait! Now let me stop right here and say I know what you're all thinking right now...it was Thanksgiving...they wanted to spend Thanksgiving with their families...cut them some slack. Yeah. I know. Whatever. Call me selfish but I wanted our APPROVAL! Last Tuesday (12-2-08), after three weeks post-Request-for-Evidence, our corrections were mailed. FINALLY we're getting somewhere.

TODAY, two business days after he received our corrections, I receive a personal phone call and an email from Mr. Michael _________, my new BEST FRIEND. Both began with the words, "Congratulations! Your I-800A petition has been approved". Oh yeah! Here comes the Carlton again! That means within a few weeks our dossier will be complete and ready to go to China when we receive a referral. I have to do all of that crazy notarize, certify, authenticate, authenticate, authenticate stuff.

Despite statistics and timelines, our application was approved in record time. I have been reminded more than once that this was not a coincidence. It was bigger than that. I wish I knew the reason why this happened so quickly (you know me, always trying to figure things out) but I know the Big Guy always has a plan. This time I'm not going to question it. I'm going to attempt to tame the big grin on my face and relish in our Christmas miracle. This is happening...it is REALLY REALLY happening...

Statistics:
from mail date: 70 days
from log in date: 59 days

P.S. To all of those waiting in the I-800A line, I am so sorry. I hope you are reviewed and approved quickly. I sincerely mean that. Don't hate me...