I-800 Approval!!!!

Late Wednesday night, I emailed USCIS to see if our immigration officer had received our I-800 application (Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as Immediate Relative). All applications must be mailed to a lockbox in Texas and then are forwarded on to the National Benefits Center in Missouri so it can take 10-14 days (or sometimes longer) for an application to reach an officer's desk! Thursday morning (our 10 day mark), our officer emailed a response that she had not received our application but she could see that it was in the building and should therefore reach her desk within days. On Friday afternoon, I decided to call because I just couldn't wait through the weekend for news. The very friendly woman who answered the phone at USCIS looked up our case and announced that our I-800 was approved on Thursday afternoon!!! This is the absolute fastest that this step of the process can take. I was so surprised that I inadvertently said, "Shut up...your kidding me!" (think Elaine on Seinfeld). Luckily, she got a kick out of my response and just laughed and said, "No seriously, I'm not kidding". What an amazing way to start the weekend!

Now, our approval should be on its way to the National Visa Center in New Hampshire by 2nd day air (yes, that's right...Texas-Missouri-New Hampshire). They will then log our approval in and cable (which sounds a lot like an email) our approval to the US Embassy in Bogota. At the Embassy, someone will issue an Article 5 letter that lets ICBF know that we are ready for travel. Our adoption agency rep will then pick up said letter and arrange a date for us to receive Jhonatan.

Although it sounds like there are many steps left, it is possible that we could have our travel date in about a week and travel about 2 weeks after that!

I'm soooo ready to have all of our kids together again. Here is a little video from Jhonatan's last night with us in January. It's not that exciting but it makes me smile!