Fingerprinting
January 27, 2005
Yesterday Tricia and I left home at about 7 a.m. and drove to Charlotte, NC (about a four hour drive). The purpose for our trip was to be fingerprinted at the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). We were surprised at the number of people waiting ahead of us. I would say about 95 percent of them were mexicans. Well, we got to the front of the line where we were handed a number (#049 and #050). I looked up at the board and they were on #860 which meant we had about 190 people ahead of us! Zoiks.
I asked the lady if we had to remain on site, and she told us that we had at least a two-hour wait. So, Tricia and I went to lunch at Carrabas. Someone had generously given us a gift certificate about two weeks earlier. We had a very nice lunch.
We returned an hour and a half later, and after I calculated how far we had gotten I determined we had another three hours to wait. So we sat for a while and then went for a walk. We walked over to a little café where I had a coffee and we talked to the two ladies who worked there.
We ended up waiting a total of four hours, but it wasn't all that bad since Tricia and I were able to spend some quality time together.
We were both fingerprinted and all went well. Tricia's pinky had some scar tissue on it from where it was splitting, and the gentleman that did her prints was concerned that the F.B.I. might reject it and make her redo her prints. We're praying that is not the case.
We hopped back in the van and drove the four hours home just in the nick of time for church.
Last night at church the congregation voted to give Tricia and I a generous sum of money for our adoption. We are very grateful.
