Still chasing those papers!

We had our home visit with our social worker on 2/22; I'm glad that's overwith! Thank goodness she didn't do any white-glove tests. She's writing up our homestudy now.

Things seem to be moving along pretty well now. We sent our I-600A application (applic. to bring an orphan into the US) to the USCIS (immigration) on 1/31; received our fingerprint referral notices on 2/17 (invitation from USCIS to go get our fingerprints taken), and we went to their Naperville office to have our fingerprints taken on 2/24. Unfortunately, my fingerprints are worn, and might be rejected. If that happens, I'll have to go back and have them retaken. They will send me a notice if this is the case, but I'm not sure when. Evidently that office just takes the prints (electronic scan), and they're sent to a different office to be read or whatever. This fingerprint issue did not surprise me, because I've had this problem before. Would you believe that in Illinois, you have to have your fingerprints taken 3 different times for international adoption? First is for DCFS--electronic scan--to be checked for history of child abuse. The woman who took my prints for that told me that they would probably be rejected because they were worn. Luckily though, those did pass.

Then the 2nd time was for FBI criminal clearance. That time we had to go to the sherriff's dept. and have the old-fashioned ink-and-roll prints taken on paper cards, and then we had to send them to the FBI in West Virginia. Don's passed, no problem, but my 1st set were rejected as poor quality prints, so I had to have them taken again and sent in a 2nd time. I'm still waiting to hear if they passed. So it came as no surprise when the woman at the USCIS office said they weren't very good prints. What can I say? I guess I just wore them away with my life of endless toil, lol!

SO, once we get my FBI clearance (if my 2nd prints pass muster), our social worker can finish our home study and send it to USCIS. Then (assuming my prints THERE are sufficient), we will be issued the all-important I-171-H form, which is our official government permission to adopt a foreign orphan and bring her/him into the US to become a US citizen.

(When I worked at Finley Hospital, we had a drug cart that required putting our index finger print on a little screen to be read, and this would open the cart for us to remove the med we needed. I could NEVER get that stupid cart to open for me--now I know why!! I suppose I could embark on a new career as a criminal of some sort--they'd never be able to catch me by using fingerprints!!)

I really hope we can get everything finished up and sent to Vietnam by late April or early May; then we might travel this summer. Lauren can only go with us if we travel in the summer.