Biometrics

Some days I don't check the mail. It's been so cold lately that if I'm not leaving the house for another reason I just leave the mail until the next day. If figure it's not going anywhere and as long as no one tries to steal my identity, it should be fine. So the other day, as I gathered two days worth of mail on my way to run errands with the kids, I saw two envelopes from The Department of Homeland Security in the mound I struggled to contain as I walked toward the van. My heart raced.

The last "communication" we had with this department was a notice of receipt of our Application for Immigration/ Orphan Petition. The fine print stated processing time for the application would be three months and by the way do not contact us unless those three months have expired. And yet now, just a couple weeks later they have sent us two letters. Did I mess up on filling out the form? Was there a problem? I tore into the envelope.

The letter was a notice of an appointment to have my biometrics taken at 8:00 AM on Christmas Eve. Of course, biometrics. And so I thought... what is a biometric, exactly? As I drove around running errands and the gears were turning ever so slowly in my brain, it eventually became clear that biometrics were fingerprints. I can do fingerprints. Even at 8:00 AM Christmas Eve, an hour from home, I can do fingerprints.

I was excited. A step forward. The notice said the applicant could call and reschedule. I thought about it for a short moment. No siree Bob. I will take the appointment. Who knows when the next one will come around.

But seriously, are government offices usually open on Christmas Eve? Who knew? In any case, Ben and I will travel to Grand Rapids on Christmas Eve and prove the legitimacy of our Citizenship of the US of A.

USCIS is in the mail!

Yes, it is TRUE! The USCIS papers are finally in the mail!!!! What does this mean you ask? This means the first part of our adoption rigamaroll is finished, finito, kaput! WOOOOHOOOO!

Now we wait 6- 12 weeks to get approval papers back from immigration saying they will allow us to bring the newest members of our family into the US of A. During this 6-12 week wait we will finish (in theory) the rest on the paperwork for our dossier (the big bundle of all the documents that will be translated and sent to Ethiopia). Then we will take our dossier papers to...THE OFFICE OF THE GREAT SEAL (a name best said in a booming deep voice with a bit of a echo) in Lansing and get a bunch of shiny golden seals on the 20 documents that we have carefully gathered. At that time we will be praying to our God that the Great Seal people find our papers seal-worthy.

After the documents have been sealed our dossier will be finished and a courier service will take it to AWAA in VA to be translated and sent to Ethiopia.

Then we just get to wait...oh and set up the bedrooms...that will be fun:)

Waiting

All our immigration paperwork is in order. We are just waiting for our social worker to return to her office on Tuesday (tomorrow) so she can get the homestudy signed and in the mail.