Biometrics....We did it!

Well, our letters came from USCIS on Friday (18th) which included the receipt that they have our I600A, and along with it came our fingerprint appointments! Yay!!! We knew we'd probably want to try to get our fingerprints done earlier than our scheduled appointments (which ended up being scheduled for the 7th and 12th of July) and hopefully speed up the process some. Not sure why they scheduled us for different dates, but...

Anyway, we packed up and headed out Sunday afternoon to brave the big city of Albuquerque and took our fingerprint letters with us! I was pretty sure they wouldn't let us "walk-in". I had emailed them last week to see if they had a walk-in day, and they emailed back saying ASC's don't have walk-in days anymore. I knew that wasn't exactly true, because other people I know have done it. But the email was a pretty generic email so I wasn't sure. By the way, ASC stands for Application Support Center, for those who want to know. Anyway, with the encouragement of others who have "been there, done that" off we went! I was a nervous wreck!

I had decided earlier that I was gonna take a picture of the ASC building for the girls' book and for the blog. But I was so nervous on the way there and walking in that I totally forgot to take one. Dang it! And then on the way out, we were so elated that I forgot again! So you will have to use your imagination here.... Picture some old part of Albuquerque, an old shopping center where it was probably a hopping place in the 70's, a big huge parking lot somewhat surrounded by dirt and gravel, and the temperature around 89 degrees. Okay, there was a Subway there, but honestly I cannot remember what other stores were around. Just the big ol' fat plain sign that said APPLICATION SUPPORT CENTER. Got a mental image of that? Good, cause like I said...no pictures...

When we walked in, the first thing we saw was this little old man in a uniform sitting at a single desk. The place was pretty huge behind him, and cool inside with a very clean shiny floor. Off to the left were rows of chairs facing a TV on the wall and some magazine racks. There was another uniformed man in an office in the corner that looked as if he could not take his eyes off his computer. Waayyyy in the back was a lady who looked to be the one in charge talking to another lady who looked like she was probably from India. Here we were with all 5 of our kids who were dressed especially nice for this occasion. So we showed the man our fingerprint letters, told him we where we were from (4 1/2 hours away), and asked if it was possible for us to be able to get these fingerprints done now (since we were in town and all). ;) He wasn't sure, so he got up and walked slowly and somewhat bent over all the way back to the lady in charge. We watched him show her the papers and say something and we watched her shaking her head at him, looking at us, and saying a whole bunch of we're-not-sure-what back to him. Then he picked up some clipboards and headed back our way. Oh man, at this point I was pretty sure she had said NO WAY!

But he handed us the clipboards, told us we might have to wait because people who had appointments had priority!! We were like "Oh yes of course!!! We will wait. Thank you!!" I could barely fill out my name I was shaking so bad! We ended up being there less than an hour and while I worked my you-know-what-off keeping the kids quiet and behaved, it went really well!

It was kinda funny because little old man (the Guard) was pretty serious! He had to get after us a couple times. Well, mostly it was Justin, our 2 year old. He was running once and Guard yelled, "He can't run, he'll get hurt!!". Then when Justin was crawling over and under the chairs, Guard came right over and told us he CANNOT do that because the chairs are all attached and they would break apart!! It really was kind of funny and for the most part the kids did really great! The lady in charge, that wasn't happy with us at first, ended up being really nice and told me that my kids were really well behaved. I'll take that anytime!

And the best part was that I was able to tell her about our little girls and what is happening to these little ones that have Down syndrome in Eastern Europe if they are not adopted by the age of 4. While she was doing my fingerprints, I spilled our whole story! Well the shortened version anyway. It was awesome! We are so glad we took the chance and I was reminded once again how our amazing God is so control in this adoption and in every part of our lives! Thanks so much to all the people who prayed!!! You are playing a big part in helping us get our girls home as soon as possible and we cannot thank you enough! Please keep praying for us!