Congrats!  You and I seem to be living parallel lives here.  I have also been fearing the approval process for almost a year now.  I finally got my credit to where I thought I'd have a chance (mid score at 623), so I went for pre-approval on Feb. 9 after seeing a home I liked the day before.  I was quickly pre-approved, placed an offer, did a counter back and forth with the seller and was accepted.  I never thought I'd be in this position even as recently as 3 weeks ago and now, suddenly, I am scheduled to close on my first home March 30 due to some very timely CA deletions.  I have my fingers crossed--still waiting on final mortgage approval which is still scaring me to death despite the pre-approval (should hear back on that by next Wednesday).  Appraisal is being done today.  I can't even imagine how much fun this must be for someone with good credit who knows FOR SURE that nothing can go wrong before closing. 

I will race ya to the closing table