I reactivated my account after almost a year

but...I had forgotten that I had deleted the characters on the account to ensure I did not try to come back. That clearly worked out well for me. The situations I had that limited my time constraints (and budget constraints) are gone, and I'd like to have at least my two 70+ characters back, although I wouldn't be terribly upset if I got my lower level characters back as well.

I opened a ticket, but it's been a while, and I don't really wish to jump in circles in Stormwind on a level one character for a week until I get a response.

My rogue was 79ish...might have hit 80 on him, not certain. I know it was close, but can't recall if I dinged or not. The mage 72-73, and was my main in TBC through Hyjal/BT, and I had a plethora of lower level characters; a 29 hunter, 29 warlock, and a druid in the 30's somewhere. I had others as well, but those would be the five characters I would be most interested in retrieving. If there's a limit on things due to me being a complete and total idiot about this, the 70+ ones would be preferred, naturally :)

I don't mind waiting if need be, but I'd just like to know what the general procedure is for such things - do I have to wait in game until someone gets around to my ticket? Does simply filing the ticket work effectively, and I can do whatever I wish outside of game until things occur? Am I wasting my time hoping for restoration, and I should simply start over at level 1? I'd really rather not start the leveling process over, however, and would probably be more inclined to simply find another game to play.

Regardless, thanks for your time, and patience.