Thursday, January 25, 2007

We have mail!

Everyday for the last two weeks I have valiantly made the sometimes arduous trek to the post office (ice, ice baby) hoping to come home with the coveted I-171H. It reminds me a bit of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Like Charlie searching for the golden ticket in a bar of chocolate, I would slowly ease my key into the box, heart pounding wildly; wondering if this could be the day.

Everyday I would cautiously open the door and peek in to see if anything looked promising. Then I would gently pull all the mail out and slowly sift through it to make sure nothing was hiding behind yet another credit card solicitation. Finding nothing I then would stoop down to peer intently into the box to be sure nothing was overlooked. After this fun ritual came I would diligently check in with ZM so he could commiserate with me about having received no “good mail”.

Like Charlie, I had given up hope of finding the gold, for this week at least. Today I quickly shoved in the key and popped open the box full, fully assured that like every other day, nothing good would be waiting. But wait! There, right on top with the return address clearly visible through the open door was a small white envelope from the USCIS. I stood there for a moment, frozen in astonishment. Was this THE letter, or maybe it was a rejection letter, maybe they need more information, or maybe they decided they’d better not give anymore kids to those crazy tree hugging, electric car driving, organic eating weirdos.

Forgetting any and all other priorities I immediately ripped open the envelope…only to scratch my head. What was this? Was it the I-171H? I read it over a couple of times. It did say on it that we were approved to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia, (a fact that it took me several minuets of perusal to obtain) but nowhere did it say I-171H. Luckily for me, several blogging buddies had mentioned how inconspicuous this form could be, so after a small amount of uncertainty, I began to franticly dig around in my purse for the cell phone to call ZM.

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”, I yelled into the phone as soon as he picked up, “It’s a good mail day”.




7 comments:

Yeah So said...

A very good mail day indeed! Congrats on the big milestone!

Elle said...

Isn't it amazing as to how horribly nondescript and impersonal it truly is.

Yeah! Good mail.

Deb said...

WooHoo!!! Great Mail Day! Congratz!

Jennefer said...

Yes! It is your golden ticket!

Maggie said...

They really need to make those I-171H forms a bit more exciting. The anticipation and build up make you expect this golden engraved work of art... instead it's this inconspicuous black and white thing.

Congrats!

Anonymous said...

congrats on the I171-H. When we got ours (also from a PO box), it was totally inconspicuous, and I had to read it a few times to make sure of what it was.

We decided to adopt siblings, too, so are now waiting for them to "reopen" our case and ok it. Another formality, and another wait... Supposedly only 2 weeks...

e

Melissa said...

THAT'S FANTASTIC. I HAD THE SAME REACTION TO THE LETTER. NO ONE IS SURE IF THAT IS THE CORRECT LETTER.