Last Week - A test for me...

Last week I started the week anxiously awaiting the form from Immigration that is holding up our adoption. I was confident that it would come and ran to the mailbox Monday and Tuesday as though Santa Claus had visited. Reality - on Wednesday I decided to do whatever to try and actually reach a human at the USCIS office - to no avail. I did however, get an email of a person (who never identified themself) that was kind enough to at least reply back. My second set of fingerprints had been rejected by the FBI - what is up with that?? For some reason my fingers are not able to give readable prints. The FBI will only accept prints twice so now I had to move to the exception phase. The person emailed and said I not only had to go back to the USCIS office for a sworn affadavit but that I had to contact every police department in any city I had lived in since I was 18 and get a clearance letter/background check.

Now the frustrating part of this is a couple of things....wonder how long I would have had to wait to hear that I had failed the fingerprint test if I had not started calling and/or emailing. The second thing was that when I called Murfreesboro they said I should just get a report form TBI and that would show anything from the whole state........this would be great because I have only lived in the state of TN and I actually already had that piece of paper. But for whatever reason the Memphis office would not accept that. When I went in for the sworn affadavit the ASC manager who took my statement tried to help me out by saying he thought I only had to go back for five years however, Memphis would not accept his word that that was the law and he could not find it on-line to show them.

Next step contacting Memphis, Knoxville, Shelbyville and Murfreesboro police departments which proved to be a test of perseverance itself. But by Thursday at 6pm I had sent Knoxville's form (which had to be notarized) off to them, mailed Shelbyville a letter and sent Memphis a letter with a $20 money order. So now I must wait......................for the background checks to come back which I will then send to Memphis and hope that they will then send the paperwork to me so that we may get on the list to yes ...wait...........................

I strongly urge anyone who thinks they even might want to adopt to pray about it, pursue it and take the leap of faith but let me tell you that it is not a simple, easy or quick process. Granted neither is being pregnant and labor and delivery is not a party but this certainly isn't either. Thank goodness the gift is GRAND!

I really don't like to publish post that are complaining or whiney in nature but for anyone in the process I think it helps to know others have struggled and not everything just falls into place without determination. Keep moving forward and don't give up...............tears of frustration will turn to tears of joy - I just know it!