Not Again....

So I left the federal building in tears again.

You may remember this little episode.

This time it wasn't the Social Security office.  It was Homeland Security.

We've moved into the first immigration phase of our adoption.  We are working on our I800a approval.  Basicly we need USCIS to approve us to adopt internationally.  We have sent in our application.  We've received our biometrics appointment.  It is 2 weeks away.  It took 2 weeks to get the notification.  So that's a month of doing NOTHING!!  Then once the fingerprints are done there is another month or so of waiting for apporval and MY plans of being logged in by the end of June are fast slipping away.  I had to do something.

There are lots of stories of people walking in early for their fingerprint appointment.  Weeks early.  It was worth a shot.  Go early in the day.  Be syrupy sweet. Tell them it's for an adoption.  Pray your guts out that they let you through the door.

We set out Thursday morning for the Federal Building and that horrible parking gargage.  I had everybody I could think of praying.  The closer we got the more confident I got that we were going to get in!  We made our way up the elevator and found the Department of Homeland Security.  There was nobody in the waiting room.  Nobody.  Zero.  Empty.  Woohoo!!  This so going to go so well.  Once again I had premature confidence while in the federal building.  A sure sign things were going to go badly.

A lady took our forms and told us the officer would be with us soon.  She was.  She very quickly informed us that we would not be allowed to have our prints done today.  We had to come back on the 14th.  I have to work that day I said.  This is the last thing we need before all our paperwork is done.  Its for an adoption.  Please.  There is no one else here.  Please.   Please.  Please.  Please.

No.  They had other things to do.  We were welcome to reschedule for a later date.  Thank you.  Goodbye.
  
Goodbye my foot.  I wasn't going anywhere.  I  stood there.  At the window.  It was a little awkward but it was worth a shot.    

A few minutes later another lady walked through and saw us.  She asked did we need anything.  I told her YES!  We need our fingerprints done today.  We knew we were early but we knew other people did this and look!! This so where I whip the picture of Sarah out of my purse.  She needs me.  She is waiting.  Please.  She actually had a kind look on her face and said she was so sorry.  Right before she told us no.

And so we left.  And I cried in the elevator of the Federal Building.  Again.

Luckily Shane was driving and we made it out of the parking garage in record time.

Truthfully, I should have been prepared to get turned away and I thought I was.  But I wasn't.  My time frame is slowly slipping away.  We will be lucky to be logged in by August.  It is beginning to look way more like January than November.

I have had a hard time this week.  This week more than ever I feel like her mother.  I need to mother her.  She needs to be mothered.  If you see me this week please don't tell me Novemebr isn't that far away.  If one of your children was thousands of miles away and needed help you couldn't give her November would seem like an eternity and today it feels like 2 eternities and it's probably going to be longer than that.

I've made peace with this part of the wait though.  Theres nothing I can do to make the 14th come faster.  What I can do is enjoy this next week and half.  Will has 2 baseball games.  Jenny has her 6th grade choir concert.  We have awards day.  And it's my birthday!  Shane and I are going to New Orleans to see my very favorite musical and then it's the 14th!  It's a very busy, fun week and I am going to enjoy it!!

I'll deal with the next wait when it gets here.

And I am going to stay as far away from the Federal Building as possible.