Good News re: Adoption and I-600 A Extensions

Today we received good news from the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). USCIS Joint Council has decided to grant a one time renewal (again) of the I-600 A petition to adopt an internationally born orphan. Yeah for USCIS. Basically this is paperwork our government requires prospective parents to complete prior to traveling to complete an international adoption. The approval has an expiration date and since China and other countries have far exceeded normal wait times it affected approxiamately 10,000 Americans, including spouse and I. If USCIS had not resolved this issue it would have cost us anywhere from $1,800 - $3,000 additional fees, plus an updated home study, a 4th set of fingerprints, medical updates, and child abuse clearances again (which are costly can take months). Overall just adds cost, uncertainty and potential to lose your place in line. So, to our agencies (FTIA) credit they communicated the 5 things we (prospective parents) needed to communicate to our representatives and senators and the dates to email this information. So today I feel a little better about Senator George Voinivich (R) , Senator Sherrod Brown (D) and Representative Jean Schmidt (R) who we sent emails to over the weekend. I quess this would be a rare compliment for politicians in these economic times but I am thankful.