I-171H ~ The Story

Here it is! Is this not the most beautiful sight ever? This my friends is THE LAST PIECE OF PAPERWORK I NEED FOR MY ADOPTION (for now anyway)!! WHOOOHOOO!!

Let me back up and tell you the story of The day the I-171H arrived...

The day started like any other day. Got up, went to work, wondered if this day would be the day, but honestly, after the disappointment of the day before I wasn't expecting anything. I went home for lunch (which I rarely do), decided to make some rice to go with my dinner, and was standing at the kitchen sink when the mail lady came to the door. She looked at me through the window...I ran to the door, swung it open, and she said "I think your important piece of paper is HERE!! I have it!! It's from immigration!!".

How did she know you ask? Well, she knew because I had been stalking the poor mail lady for the past couple of days. I started to cry, of course, and gave her a hug. She probably thought I was crazy, but she was oh so very sweet and said "congratulations!" What I thought was so special was the fact that when she saw I was home, she took the time to walk it up to the door so she could give it to me in person.

I love my mail lady.

Then I started the calls. First to my Mom, then to my brother, then to my friend Shelb, then to Hannah, then to someone special, then an email to my Dad, and then I smelled something burning. Oh crap!! The rice...yep, it was burned to a crisp and to be honest...I don't think the pan is going to survive either. It's still soaking as I type this. So, I headed back to work with the ol' I-171H in hand ready for my co-worker Pam to notarize it. My friend Ana yelped when she saw that I was holding a white envelope and my China notebook. I hadn't even opened it yet, so everyone gathered round and we all looked at it together. I have to say, this is one of the best sentences I've read since I started this process:

It has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to an orphan or orphans as defined by Section 101 (b)(1)(F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Cool.

All of my co-workers were so excited for me and I feel so blessed to have their constant support. Thank you.

Today, I sent all of my oh so important notarized original dossier documents to my agency via USPS priority certified mail. As I was standing in line, I kept thinking...this is so BIG! This is it! All of the paperwork I have been working on, waiting on, is now out of my hands. There is nothing more I can do, I have done everything I possibly can to adopt this little girl. Now it's in the hands of my agency and soon it will be in the hands of the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs. Holy crapola! This is sooooo exciting.

How weird it was to be standing there, ready to explode from excitement, yet no one around me knew how important this moment was. I wanted to shout out "Everyone, look, look, my documents, my documents are almost on their way to ChinA!!

I refrained of course, I didn't feel like dealing with USPS security.

So, what now? Hmmmm, I'll give your eyes a rest and tackle it in another post...

Thank you for reading my blog and thank you for supporting me through the ups and downs of this process. Yesterday was a GREAT day!