Yep, that's right, we got 'em (fingerprints)! Mike and I left our house at 7:05 am this morning. We arrived at the Application Support Center at 7:53 am. For those of you who live near us, it's down and across the street from Nashville Airport. We stood outside with a few other people waiting to go in, the ASC opened at 8 am. While we were standing outside, I noticed an older couple waiting to go in also, they spoke with an accent, but I couldn't figure out where they were from. (After we were inside for a few minutes, the guard asked them about their weather in Belgium.) There also was a young man waiting. He was talking on his cell phone, he had an accent too. About that time they unlocked the door, a lady stepped out and said please turn off all cell phones. I left mine in the car, I didn't want to forget and accidently leave it on and then get kicked out because it rang! (They probably wouldn't have done that, but I didn't want to take any chances!! See? I'm schizo!)
We went in behind the others, waited in line and then a lady motioned for us to come around. We gave our appointment forms to her. (I stood there, just waiting for the, "your appointment isn't till Oct 7th" comment.) She asked to see our TN drivers license's, and then we each had to show her the palms of our hands. She stamped our papers, signed them, stamped today's date on them and said fill out the top part of this form and we'll call you soon. Holy cow! (as Mike would say!) We're getting them! Yah!!
We sat down and filled out the little bit of information they wanted. The guard called us up and checked our forms. I was beside myself! I put Davidson county in the blank where they were asking "country of birth" - duh! I thought it said "county of birth"! The guy just marked through it and put USA, no big deal. At that point I didn't even care, we were about to get them done early!
We waited another 5 minutes and the lady called my number. I stepped up, she scanned my fingers, asked about our adoption, what country, etc. She was super nice! She looked the prints over and said I was good to go! Mike was after me. Same thing with him. By 8:30 we were outta there! :) Needless to say, I was so relieved.
Mike went onto work, I left to go back towards home. I decided to stop at the Parent - Teacher store in Rivergate to find a map to give as a gift to the Foster girls in Korea. I hadn't given up on my original idea of a map of the US that had neat colors and all the states outlined. I found one! It was only $3.00, laminated, all the states were colored, outlined, and really easy to read the names of each state. It was a good size too, standard notebook paper size. On the other side of the map was a world map - I thought, even better!
I was headed to my mom and dad's house then. I got there, pulled up to their house and my cell phone rings. I looked at the display and it said "Unknown, No number". I thought - telemarketer! So I answered it. This girl asked if I was Leah, I said yes. Then she proceeded to tell me she was with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, in Missouri. Another "Holy Cow" moment! I almost couldn't keep up with what she was saying. She spoke slow, I was just in shock! She said she needed a few things for our I600 that they received. I almost had to slap myself to reality! I said hang on so I can get something to write on. She said all they needed was a copy of our completed Home Study, and a copy of our I-171H (the approval notice we received from our I600A). She gave me a fax number and gave me the info to put on a cover sheet. I came to my senses pretty quick and asked her if she had any idea if/when they would get notice of our fingerprints. I told her we just had them done this morning and she said she would put a note on our file that our fingerprints were completed that morning. She said their office should see the approval of our fingerprints by Monday of next week - AWESOME! She said she tried our home number first, but decided to try my cell number to see if she could reach me, thinking I could get those papers for her sooner! She was awesome! I told her I was running home after the call and would fax them the papers! When we started this process I bought a fax machine, I figured we might need one. Best investment I ever made!! : ) I ran home, found the papers, filled out the cover sheet and fax those babies quick! I am so hoping this makes for a quicker turn around in Missouri! I can always hope right? At this point, it's all I have!
