September 1, 2007

Yesterday Maya was 17 weeks old! It is so hard to believe that so much time has passed already. I guess overall that is good (that it is going fast). However, I have to say that yesterday I was extremely frustrated over "just one more detail." To back up a bit, last year when I started the process I had to complete certain steps through USCIS (aka: Immigration). I had to fill out an I-600A, get fingerprinted, and wait on my I171H. This is all part of the steps that are required to legally adopt internationally and bring a child home to the US. Well, believe it or not, Fingerprints expire! Yes, after 15 months I have to be re-fingerprinted! What is up with that?My fingerprints don't change! So why is it that they have us go through 1 more step! Can't ANYTHING be simple!!!!! So at the beginning of July I asked my caseworker when and what I need to do to get my fingerprints updated. He told me that 30 days prior to them expiring (they expire Oct. 8th) I need to go to the USCIS website and make an appt. to get them re-done. Well with next week being the 30 day mark, I went to the website on Thursday and could not understand a thing. So I called customer service for USCIS and they told me "Oh mam, this is an emergency so you need to go to the same place you went last time and tell them you don't have an appt. but could they please help you get this done." Well let me tell you...anytime I hear the words emergency related to this adoption, it is not a good thing! So first thing Friday morning I went to the office in Ft. Worth that did my fingerprints the first time and the guy tells me they can not take anyone without an appt. and when the fingerprints expire I will get a notice in the mail of when I need to have them done. I told him what the guy at the customer service line said and so he went to go get his supervisor. She very politely told me that they do not do fingerprints without appointments and I need to go through whomever I did the first time to set up another appointment. That sounds easy but I did not "go through someone before" I just filled out a form and the appt. was mailed to me. Of course I don't have or need the type of form I filled out the first time so I can't do it that way this time. I then told her what the customer service person said and she said "I really wish they wouldn't take these calls because they don't know the answers... they just deal with immigration." I asked her for a number of someone to call and all she said again was "call whoever you used before." HELLO, did you not hear me...I did not use someone before!!! I told her there are no other numbers but Customer Service listed on the website. She said "I know" and I said "and you will not give me any ones number to call" and she said "I know." I said "So what am I supposed to do?" She said "go to the office in Dallas and have them schedule an appointment for you." I looked at her (after she gave me the address) and said "So what you are telling me is that I took off work for nothing, you can not help me and I need to go to Dallas (but not today because it is a holiday weekend) and have them schedule a time for me to come back here to be refingerprinted." she said "Yes." "So even though my fingerprints expire in 30 days and I have found out that I should have started this process earlier you can not help me. Now my fingerprints will expire, my paperwork in Guatemala will be delayed and my daughter will have to wait to come home with me!" AND MY FINGERPRINTS HAVE NOT CHANGED IN THE LAST 15 MONTHS!!! How frustrating!!! Now I have left a message for my caseworker but he was out of the office yesterday so I have to wait until next week to talk to him about all this. AUGH!