PATIENCE

Today Allen and I went to the immigration office in Bloomington for a 9:30 a.m. appointment with someone who could perhaps help us with some of our questions regarding my fingerprint fiasco and the I-800A and I-800 forms. (You probably don't know what that is, but we have spent a lot of time and energy trying to get these documents completed. Plus, it makes me feel important to throw these terms around!) Anyway, it felt a bit unusual as there were guards everywhere. We entered a room with many chairs and waited for our number to be called. We had exactly 15 minutes to state our case and... "failure to show up on time would result in the cancellation of the appointment". Thankfully, we arrived in plenty of time.

When it was time to go to Window #4, we brought our piece of paper with the personal identification number and started asking questions. Our main objectives were to #1-See if there was any way we could help the fingerprinting process by providing additional information.... #2-Ask about the processing timeline...#3-Inquire about a receipt number that we would need for the I-800. The I-800 and the I-800A are brand new forms and there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding these documents. (Maybe Allen and I are the only confused ones!!) Anyway, I don't know how to say this in a nice way, but our 15 minutes was a total waste of time. The person who was helping us was nice enough. He simply didn't have any concrete answers for us. He kept saying, "Well, I think this should happen..." and "Evidently, this must have happened..." and "Well, you will probably..." Unfortunately, his answers did not inspire a lot of confidence. It appeared that he didn't really know what he was talking about! The worst part was that he didn't seem all that interested. We walked out of there feeling pretty discouraged.

Later, Allen called another number we had been given by our adoption counselor. He was able to talk to a person who was actually quite helpful. There was some information that she needed to check on, but she called us back just a few minutes later. Mostly, it just felt like she was interested and cared about our situation. We appreciated her help, but were still feeling a bit discouraged. I especially feel badly (and responsible) because it's my fingerprints that have held us up. Everything else has progressed beautifully. We have already been delayed about a month because of this. Our concern is that the children will not arrive until after school starts in the fall. We have no way of knowing that, but we are keenly aware that the clock is ticking... Basically, we have little to no control over this situation and it is very frustrating. It is a good exercise in patience. You could pray that we do what we can to move this process along... and then try to be patient.

The day wasn't a total loss. It was a beautiful day, we went to lunch and we did a little shopping. I wish I had a better idea of when we will be going to get our kids, but at this point, we just don't know. Hang in there with us... and keep posted.