If there is one thing you need to know about the adoption process, it is that you will have your fingerprints taken multiple times and there is no way around it. I have worked with enough families over the years to know all of the funny things that are said about why it is that the government has adoptive families get fingerprinted multiple times in multiple locations, especially when their fingerprints don't change. (this is what is commonly said by everyone) Even though some parts of the process don't make sense, you just grin and do it and don't try to understand "the why".
Today is the day we were both able to work it out to try a "walk in" appointment for our USCIS fingerprints, since our actual appointment isn't until March 15th. In order to make the most of our time, we decided to also take all of our documents (except the one we are currently waiting on- the immigration approval) through the authentication steps while we wait so that everything is ready to go once we have our final form. This will later allow us to do one day processing to authenticate that document in DC when it arrives. Today, we left our house around 3:30 to get our day started and to eventually end up very early downtown to wait in line early for authentication at the State Department and eventually the Chinese Embassy. Luckily, we were there early and were one of the first in and able to get out relatively quickly considering all. One of our documents we were a little nervous about was also approved, and so we were able to drop off our documents at the Chinese Embassy for pick-up several days later.
It was at this point in the morning that both Nate and I realized how little sleep we were running on and were starting to get a little delirious. We headed to the USCIS fingerprint center and I was nervous this wasn't going to work. We get to the parking lot and I am quickly scoping out the parking lot like a private detective, to see if there were "too many cars"which would mean there were too many people and the officer might reject us. I assessed and it didn't look bad and so I thought we just might be in luck.
We entered and chuckled to see a very large room with around 100 chairs or more completely empty and only 3 people ahead of us. The officer screened our immigration appointment letter and nodded us off and said she'd let us go ahead and get printed. We filled out some forms and then were given our number in line. Even though things were going smoothly thus far, I was still concerned as Nate's prints don't always turn out. So I couldn't resist and this is where I into "adoption counselor mode" and decided to coach him on exactly what he needed to make sure to tell his officer so that they don't mess his prints up and make a note on his file, or whatever it was they needed to do to ensure a good read on his prints. We had come this far, so I wanted to make sure things went through fine from here on out.
They called us back and well, I have to say I've been complimented on some funny things in life, but never on how good my fingerprints look. I had to laugh. I took that to mean mine wouldn't have an issue of being rejected, so now it was just a matter of if Nate's would be ok. Nate finished up and we both left so ecstatic that everything had gone so well. I know it was because we had a lot of people praying that we would get this completed smoothly with no issues.
We grabbed some Mediterranean food and though we would normally do something fun while in the city, we decided we were just about to crash and decided to head home. (definitely not our usual reaction) Our day had turned out perfectly and we were just so excited that God had given us favor as we completed these next steps in our process.
Woohoo-- now we wait for our USCIS approval- the last document to mail off our dossier!
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