Adoption Fingerprinting Woes

We've been working on updating our home study. There's a lot of paper gathering and filling out of forms. I have to go through the house and put in all those annoying little plug covers that most three olds can pop right out while most 33 year olds struggle with them for at least 10 minutes. And then there's the fire extinguisher . . . big, red, ugly . . . hanging on my kitchen wall. But all of that was minor, and I was feeling like it was a breeze . . . until yesterday.

Some background info before I go into details about what happened. Bulgaria requires an FBI background check done with ink fingerprints. Ink fingerprints aren't very common anymore, and not a lot of people know how to take them well. So the first time we took them and sent them off blissfully unaware that they might reject them. Well, they didn't reject Patrick's. They did reject mine. You can read about it here. But seriously that was pretty much the gist of it. I was traumatized. I had to redo them. The second set was fine. Yada, yada, yada . . .

So last spring when we started doing our home study update, I broke into a cold sweat thinking about the FBI fingerprints. There was some confusion on the part of my home study agency about whether or not they would need to be redone. But then the heavens opened, and the angels sang, and our caseworker said I didn't need to do them again. She said I would need them when we got a referral, but that was a long way away, and so I just decided not to think about it.

Just over a month ago, we started gathering up the stuff for yet another update, and nary a word about FBI fingerprinting was said. And well, I just assumed . . . and we all know what happens when we assume. Yesterday morning I got an email from our home study caseworker saying we had to do the FBI fingerprints again. No! I rapidly concluded that she was clearly mistaken. So I, Miss Know-It-All of America, quickly set out to set everyone straight. Surely, they were just confused, these poor people . . . or not. Our adoption caseworker explained that because the type of background check that is generally used for Texas isn't accepted by Oregon (where our adoption agency is located) we had to redo them.

And. I. Freaked. Out. I'm sure everyone from both the home study agency and the adoption agency thought I was all kinds of crazy. Thank goodness they didn't say it. Our home study expires in four weeks. The chances of getting our approval letters back by then is slim to zero, and then there's the whole, "Courtney has the worst fingerprints ever" issue.

Thank the good Lord our home study caseworker went to bat for us. She talked them into proceeding with our home study and adding in a provision that says FBI fingerprints pending. We have to update again when we move as it is so hopefully by that time our fingerprint results will be back, and we can move forward with our USCIS fingerprinting. Gosh, I just love getting fingerprints. Every. Single. Year. Sometimes two or three times a year. It's a blast.

In the meantime, I'm asking that you please pray that my fingerprints don't get sent back. To me they're not the world's best prints. Patrick's, as per usual, look fantastic, but mine are just so-so. So I'm asking for prayers that the right person sees my prints and deems them legible, and that we get these back in a very timely manner.

As most parents who've been through this process will tell you, there are always bumps in the road and kinks to work out. It's how we react to these issues that's the true test for all of us. I'm working on it, but well, I have my moments. In the end, when it's all said and done, all of this will be a vague memory. Until then, I just have to keep my eye on the prize.