Bulgaria Update & USCIS Appointment

Every Friday we get a "Bulgaria Update" from our adoption agency. Sometimes it's full of exciting news such as a family receiving a referral. Other times it's more a compilation of tidbits of information that we may (or may not) need to know (depending on our current status). Every single week it lists the number of families that are in the various stages of the adoption process. Right now we are in the category of "paperwork" families, but we are so very close to being out of that paperwork category. I've said it before, but so much of the adoption process is out of our hands, and even if you're a get it done yesterday kind of person, like myself, you can't force everyone else to get things done on your timeline. Still, I look forward to the day when we are listed as "MOJ registered". Hopefully, we'll be there by the end of the year.

I've also been meaning to give you a rundown of our fingerprinting trip to USCIS. Our appointment was on the 11th at 3:00 pm in San Antonio. Even with me giving the directions (I had both the Garmin and Google Maps going . . . I'm severely directionally challenged), we arrived an hour early. I like to get places early. Being late irritates the heck out of me. We decided to go in and see if they could get us taken care of. But first, we took all electronic devices out of our purses (that should really say purse, but it doesn't sound right)and pockets so that we wouldn't be tempted to reveal the top secret goings ons of the San Antonio USCIS office (which happens to be located in a shopping center).

As soon as we walked through the doors, we were greeted by a friendly lady, and she informed us that we had actually "come at a perfect time". Yay! for the little things. We didn't walk through medical detectors. No one checked our stuff. I so could've taken every electronic device I own in that place. We were asked to fill out an insanely basic information form, and after I finished with my form, the lady clipped my driver's license and info sheet together with a number and asked me to have a seat. Patrick was still filling out his form. I have no idea why it was taking him so long. No sooner had I plopped my not so little bottom in the chair, then they called me back. Patrick? He was just finishing up his form. I was just glad I was ahead of him. I like to finish first. I'm competitive that way.

Sidenote: When I was in school and college, I finished my tests as quickly as I could without looking them over so that I could be the first one to turn them in. This may have affected my GPA but not much. Also, if you are one of my students and think you're going to try this in my classroom, you've got another thing coming buster.  Sidenote over.

So, the lady started fingerprinting me. Now for those of you who had to be ink fingerprinted, like us, it's nice to have someone that knows what they're doing fingerprinting you. I'm not saying the police officers that did our prints here in Mayberry weren't nice, but man, the lady that did my prints at the USCIS office was on the ball. Plus, she had a huge computer monitor that showed every detail of my prints. Which begs the question, "Why did we have to do ink prints?". Right after we got started, Patrick was called back and they started his fingerprinting on the other side of the room. Then my dang computer started beeping, and we had to start redoing my prints again and again and again. . .

I was starting to tense up. Sweat was poring down my back. The lady doing my prints was getting really irritated. And to make it even worse, I could tell that Patrick wasn't having any problems. Then I started having flashbacks to the ink prints we had to do and the supposed illegibility of mine, and I fell on the floor screaming, "Make it stop, make it stop!!!". Okay, almost all of this paragraph up to this point is a lie (except for the part about Patrick having no problems), but without it this story would be insanely boring. So way too long story short, Patrick's prints were done at the same time as mine even though I started before him. My left hand didn't want to cooperate, and so, we did have to redo them, but the lady, who was very patient, finally got them. And of course the other lady oohed and aahed over what great prints my husband had. Back off lady . . . you can't have him. Now all we have to do is wait for our approval letters.

And just in case . . . if you happen to know or be related to anyone who works at the USCIS office in San Antonio, can you please tell them what a great job they did? The service was awesome. That's all.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!