tns:respone '<' when using xmlstrington

I have a flow server which is accepting an XML string from my client. The output of the server is
->Doc
->string
->string
->doc
->string
->string

i m using XMLStringToXMLNode and then XMLNode to Document and catching it not a doc structure created based on a document created on the XML. The output tns:response of the service shows
->Doc
->string
->string
->doc
->string
->string

When run the service it populates my output fields fine but when I create a provider node and then aconsumer (to test my provider) all I see in under response is ‘<’ instead=“” of=“” -=“”>Doc
->string
->string
->doc
->string
->string
I am using Dev and IS 711. Please let me know if you need more explanation. I have spend about 4 hours behind this w/o any sucesss and I think i just need to tweak something thing get right output.

Thanks.</'>