The skies parted and the angels sang "Hallelujah"!

OK. I'm not a religious person... but I said a big "Thank you baby Jesus!" when I checked the mail on Friday.

Enclosed in an unassuming plain envelope with a TINY typeset Homeland Security return address was our I171-H!!!

For those who don't know what this is, it is the document that the US Government provides that officially says they approve us to adopt a foreign orphan. It is the most time consuming to receive and the most important document to go in our dossier thusfar.

While I was wishing it would have a fancy foil seal or something, I was equally as glad that it arrived...and nothing on our records! I was expecting some old blocked out memory to come reeling back in big bold Times New Roman.

I ran in from the mailbox to show Shawn that it arrived and he practically yawned while saying, "Oh, good". I swear his adoption journey will begin on the connecting flight to Beijing.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, the very next day, our long awaited marriage certificate arrived! Thank you, Big Phil! That was the best $2 I've ever spent!

To top off all this excitement, I was able to pick up a well written letter by my doctor explaining my medical condition in detail. He did a great job of clarifying that it is not an epileptic condition and is unrelated to Multiple Sclerosis, both conditions that would raise red flags. He said twice that I am in excellent health with a very mild form of Tuberous Sclerosis. Whew! Thank you, Dr. Collins... you rank right up there with Big Phil!

So, first thing yesterday, I labeled the last big manila envelope to our agency and shipped off the final pieces of our dossier.

Since they are taking care of all the authentication work for us, this should be the last time we have to see any of those documents before they head off for China. Our agency rep Elizabeth said that if the consulate rushes our docs, they may be able to get us in a dossier group next Friday! That would give us a DTC of 3/23, or 3/30 at the latest. That's a full month early. As long as China decides to count the dossiers that ARRIVE before May 1 and not LOGGED IN by May 1, we should still be in good shape. Until we get that confirmation, we won't really know for sure, but at this point, I think we'll qualify regardless considering my favorable doctor's letter.

Next step: Wait! Yes, we're spoiled because we're won't be in that 2 year wait bunch since we are going Special Needs, however now we need to wait for a new group of SN files to arrive at our agency. They are hoping to have more by April and we get them before anyone else and before they go public on their website. If we don't find our son in that batch, we may submit paperwork for a little guy with Cleft Lip/Cleft Palate in Hubei. He will turn 3 before we travel and Shawn is suddenly concerned that that's too old...but he'll come around. This little guy has been in my favorites for almost a year, meaning that he has been waiting WAY too long. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.