TA's arrived today

For Non-Hague adoptions (ours) after referral you typically wait 3-5 weeks for TA's (Travel Approval) issued by the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs).  Here is a recap of my morning today:

 At 9:54 am my blackberry buzzed with this email from our adoption coordinator:

Greetings!

          We have received Travel Approval (TA) for all families.....

           For the families that I have a current CIS approval in hand, I will be able to request your consulate appointments.  I expect your travel to be...

SO,  now our problem with USCISstill not processing our I-600A (Pre-Approval to adopt a foreign orphan form) which they received 9-29-10 (also the day we received our referral) was even more critical.  I immediately emailed our agency to ask if we got our I-600A approved today could we still travel with our group.

Minutes later the response came back "Yes, if you send it to me today, I will include you in my request to the consulate."

US Senator George Voinovich

SO, my next step was to call US Senator George Voinovich's office.  The previous night I had fax'd a request (with 5 pages of supporting documents) to his office asking for help with USCIS relative to processing our renewal.  The aide who answered the phone this morning was super helpful.  He not only found my fax, noted I had signed their required privacy act form and told me this was on the desk of the person who could address.  Then I told him I about the time sensitivity of this matters relative to the arrival of TA's.  I was so pleased with how intently he listened and then amazed by the subsequent action.  A phone call was made right away because at 11:06 am I received an email from USCIS with our approved I-600A attached.  I forwarded this to our agency who confirmed receipt at 11:37 am.  Later that afternoon another Voinovich aide called to see if the matter was resolved!  Fantastic!

A little background:
Voinovich is a ranking member on the subcommittee on Oversight of Government Mangagement for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and according to his website:

He is commited to making sure the federal government has a well managed, quality workforce and the taxpayers are getting the best "bang for the buck".

We are so grateful to Senator Voinovich and his staff for their help and really quite stunned too!