a dubious distinction to be sure, and while you seem to be close to in the running, you may still have a long ways to go to win the award.

Just one point of comparison - it took 12 weeks for my applications: 5 weeks to go the 142 miles from post office in DC and be received at Philadelphia processing center. It took another 6 weeks after that for the approval notification and then about another week for the new passports and then cards to actually arrive. And mine is far from the worst.....