USCIS Update #2

We are sitting at 60+ days waiting for our I-800A approval from the USCIS. Friends and family ask with genuine curiosity how the adoption process, and honestly, I have no new news to report.  We simply sit and wait. 

The Christmas season has kept me very busy, but secretly, I am impatient and frustrated.  I've become obsessed with the I-800A approval time frames of other families whose blogs I follow.  I wondered why families even as early as this fall were getting their approvals in 4-6 weeks.  The only way I can satiate my curiosity is to call the USCIS. 

After my persistence during my call two weeks ago when I navigated a complicated automated phone tree, spent multiple minutes on hold and was transferred numerous times, I at least now have a direct phone number to the right department within the agency.  The man I spoke to was very friendly and seemed sincere in his understanding of everyone's desire to bring their children home as quickly as possible, but he couldn't provide any more information than what I learned when I last checked in and that was that our file hasn't yet been transferred to an immigration officer.  But I did get a possible explanation for our wait. Apparently they get slammed with requests at Christmas since many sending countries shut down at some point in the months of December and January.  (China's Lunar New Year, the biggest celebration of the year, occurs between January 30 and February 5, and workplaces close.)  Adoptive parents farther along in the process are under a time crunch to get their final immigration approvals for their children.  

Despite my impatience, I trust that within time, we'll have our approval and this wait will seem like a distant memory.