We are officially approved!!!

Oh my gosh...I almost fell out of my chair. So, our adoption coordinator has been telling us that in Illinois, Immigration Services has been taking 10-12 weeks to send out approval letters (I-171H). She told me I could e-mail them and ask them how progress was coming. So I did that last night even though we are only at about week 5. I figured what the heck, it's worth a shot. So imagine my surprise today when I open my e-mail and see a response from them reading - Your I600A has been approved effective today, 3/21/07. You will receive an I-171H very soon.

Of course, after I calmed down, I called Hillary from Journeys to tell her the news. She was shocked to say the least - she said that was the fastest approval from IL she had ever seen! Not sure what to think of all this good luck we are having...I sure hope it continues!!! Anyway, she proceeded to tell me that she would immediately call her favorite attorneys and tell them that she has a family ready for a little girl. Now, we just have to pray the actual letter comes quickly then we take a trip to Chicago to have it and all our other dossier documents authenticated.

Our hope is obviously that a girl will be available ASAP!!! So we could know who are daughter is very soon...and start getting pictures, updates, etc. We are hoping to find a cheap flight to Guatemala soon after we receive the referral so we can fly down and visit her. This will allow us to sign a Power of Attorney form which would likely speed up her getting to come home by about 6 weeks. There is still no way of knowing how long it will be before Guatemala will give us the go ahead to pick her up - could be 4 months, could be 12 or more. Depends basically on their mood...and we have literally no control over that. I will post again when we have that precious piece of paper in hand! Thanks for reading and continuing to pray for our progress!!