I also have 2 friends that have been 9 days trying to get approved for steemit, this approval process is killing the growth of steemit. My friends gave up they will not be joining. I asked for help in a post of my own , I posted in a comment on steemitblog and I tried to contact someone in steemitchat. I never got a response. This really makes me look stupid telling them how awesome steemit is and then they can not even get signed up and I can not even get a response or help.
https://steemit.com/halo/@halo/help-please-problems-with-signup