Pinch Me... I Must Be Dreaming

Guess what we got in the mail today???? Our second I171H (approved as of 1/6/2009) which is now good until 7/6/2010!!!! For non adoption people it may be a bit difficult to understand the great excitement caused by the receipt of this document. The I171H basically means that you have been approved by the Department of Homeland Security to bring an orphan into the country for the purpose of adoption. The document only has a shelf life of 18 months, but there are a few loopholes which I took complete advantage of in the hopes that we wouldn't have to do this three times. Most of my adopting friends who were logged in around the same time as us are getting ready to file for their third round because their second round is about to expire. For the last couple of months I have been mentally biting my nails wondering if DHS was going to process our paperwork correctly or if they were going to make us start all over with the I800A form (an expensive and extremely time consuming document). Now it appears that we might actually get by with only going through this red tape nightmare twice! Hooray!!!!! I am truly ecstatic!

By the way, the Chinese government has completed referrals for the month of February 2006. We were logged in on July 22, 2006, so we are definitely getting closer to bringing Natalie home. I predict she will be home in late spring or early summer of 2010. We are finally on the downhill portion of the wait for our daughter.