While we wait...

We received word last week that we are officially on the waiting list at the orphanage, as of January 7. The orphanage keeps a list of approved adoptive families and works down the list, drawing pools of 2-5 families that match the birth family's preferences. We've been told that it usually takes 5-8 months for a referral. So, hopefully, we will hear something this summer.

We also received a letter from USCIS (Immigration) last week with an appointment to be fingerprinted in Lubbock. So, we went last Friday and took care of that. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. We pulled up to the building and before we even had a chance to walk into the door, a man walked out and greeted us. We told him that we were there to be fingerprinted for an adoption and he requested to see our ID's. We had the impression that we wouldn't be let into the building if we didn't have both our appointment letter and our ID's. After giving both of these to him, we were let into the building.

Even though there was only one other person in the room and two CIS agents, we were each given a number and told to sit in a waiting area of about 20 chairs. They called me (Angela) up first and asked me a series of questions. One of which was NOT my ethnicity. I saw the agent check white and move on. I told him that I was actually asian and he stared at me strangely. At first, I thought that he didn't believe me, but then he corrected the form. Then I was told to move to another chair, where I waited until the other agent input my information into a computer. After he was finished, I was allowed to verify one screen's information with my name and address on it before being fingerprinted.

Given that I don't have a criminal history, I had never been fingerprinted before starting the adoption process. Now, within the span of about two months, we each have been fingerprinted twice. Allen has really deep ridges that make lovely fingerprinting. He didn't have trouble either time. I, on the other hand, have learned that my fingers are not so easy to fingerprint. It took the immigration agent 4 or 5 tries for almost every fingerprint he had to take. I was afraid that they would decline our application on the basis that I must have sandpapered my fingers or something to get such bad fingerprints. However, the agent seemed satisfied by the end of the ordeal.

For the entire 20 minutes or so that we were in the building, I didn't see either agent show any signs of emotion. As we left the parking lot, I told Allen that I wasn't sure which had been a more intimidating experience - getting fingerprinted at the county jail (by myself) or at to the immigration office (together). Allen response was, "Well, it is a government agency."