APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not expect to post this today. (Oh me of little faith!) But I was shocked when I got the mail today!

 OUR GOLDEN TICKET HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  OUR I-171H IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it?!?!?!  I can't either!  I was completely shocked. When my USCIS officer did not call back yesterday, I thought for sure there was no news. She must have approved us shortly after I talked to her on Monday.  Oh, the Lord's Faithfulness never ceases to amaze me!!!! To God be ALL the GLORY!!!! THANK YOU to everyone who has been praying! Please don't stop!

So, what exactly does this mean?  It means that once we get a cover sheet notarized to go with the I-171H, we need to have it apostilled. So, my plan is to drive it down to Madison on Tuesday AM. I plan to call first, so she will hang onto my documents already there. Hopefully, she will be able to do this one "while we wait", even though they don't offer that service. Please pray that all works out ok.  IF the apostilled document from Indiana comes on Tuesday (pesky gov't holiday on Monday, so no mail and no apostilling going on), we will send our whole dossier over to Elijah's country!!!  I can't believe we are SO close. It all seems so surreal.

VERY tentative timeline from here once our dossier is in country:

• 2-4 weeks for translation and submission of our dossier to the EE gov't
• About 2 weeks after submission we receive a travel date
• Travel date will be 2-4 weeks out from when we receive the date

But keep in mind, EE closes down the first 2 weeks in January. New Year's is a BIG holiday over there, as well as they celebrate Christmas on January 6th or 7th.  A few years ago, someone was submitted on Nov. 7th and didn't travel until Jan 20th or so.  So, there are A LOT of variables here.  "Best case" in my mind would be to have our travel/court the 2nd or 3rd week in December (or earlier!), have our 10-day waiting period over their holidays and bring Elijah HOME the 3rd week in January.  Although, it is very possible we will have to wait to travel until mid-January. :-( I probably shouldn't have even speculated this much. But the Lord knows!  His timing is PERFECT.  Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

And wouldn't you know, this precious piece of paper that we've been praying for and waiting so long for is just a plain sheet of white paper. The letters "I-171H" are only printed on the very, very bottom in like pt. 2 font. I had been warned about this on the RR yahoo board, so I knew what to expect. But poor Pat...he was a little disappointed...no golden star (not yet!). Very anti-climatic. So, I thought I would share a little video with you. This is the song that plays in my head whenever I hear the words "Golden Ticket".



(It wouldn't let me embed the video where you can actually see Grandpa Joe dancing, but here's the link if you want to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29_uSlEEPSk&feature=related .

So, off to church in the morning and then Elijah's benefit!  We helped set up tonight and can't wait until tomorrow! It will be so much fun seeing people, and I know the food will be wonderful. Please pray that God gets all the glory tomorrow!