Fingerprint Fiasco

OMG!  Is all I have to say about fingerprinting!!!  Let me just tell you about fingerprinting and criminal record checks.  So, this past Friday we had a meeting with our adoption specialist at the agency.  Everything was going great at the meeting then she says....."by the way, did I give you the fingerprinting cards and information?"  I was like "no."  She then proceeds to tell us how she has forgotten to give this to us earlier and we need to get it done as soon as possible.  You see, we must have a criminal record check for the FBI and the GBI to be approved as adoptive couple through our agency.  Why, I don't know.  I guess because the child may come to us from out of state and they must know if we have a criminal record throughout the U.S.  So, okay, she tells us we must have two types of fingerprinting done.  The FBI needs the old school style of inked fingerprinting and GBI uses the Live Scan fingerprinting.  Now, here comes the shocking news....the FBI record check will need to be mailed to West Virginia and could take up to 13 weeks to come back!!!!  I was like, OMG!  Why did you wait so long to give this to us?  This should have been the first thing you gave us to do.  She said we should try to get these done today so it could get in the mail.  We leave there at 2:15 on Friday afternoon.  Our agency is in Atlanta near Perimeter Mall.  Immediately, we get on the phone with Hall County Sheriff's office.  They say "yes, we do the inked fingerprinting cards Monday-Friday, 9-5."  "Awesome!  We will be there," Chad tells the man on the phone.  After gobbling down some Chickfila, we high-tail it up 400, rolling into the Hall County Detention Center at 3:45.  By the way....if you don't remember, it was pouring rain on Friday afternoon.  As we pull into the parking lot of the detention center...the bottom falls out of the sky.  I'm also trying to complete the form we need to take in with us to get the fingerprints.  So, here we go into the door.  The officer at the door says, " may I help you?"  I say, "we need our fingerprints done."  He says, "go to the other door, please."  You gotta be kidding me!  Back into the rain?!  So, here we go....to the next door.  We go in and walk up to the plexiglass window.  "May I help you," says the girl.  Me, trying to be the nicest person I can be....."Hi," (with a fake smile), "we need to get our fingerprints done."  Without saying a word, she gets out a sticky note and writes something down.  I peer through the plexiglass to be nosy.  Metro PCS??!!  That's what she's writing!  I don't need a cell phone, lady.  I need my fingerprints done!  She looks back at me, "The jail does fingerprints Monday-Thursday, 9-5 only.  And, they don't do them for adoptions.  You may go to the Metro PCS on Atlanta Hwy, they do them for us.  Here's the number."  I say, "Well, why did someone at the jail just tell us they would do them today and that they will do the inked prints?"  She's like, "I don't know, but we don't do them on Fridays at all."  Can you believe this? We thank the nice lady and head back into the rain.  Luckily, we didn't get a ticket because we parked in a reserved spot at the detention center but we weren't even there for 10 minutes at the most.  We get into the truck and I immediately call Metro PCS.  The lady who answered the phone says they do prints until 5:30.  Good.  But, they only have the Live Scan.  My heart sank.  By this time, I am furiously frustrated!  What to do now?  Chad decides to call our friendly sheriff's deputy, Phil.  He tells us to call the courthouse to find out what they suggest.  We call there to speak with the person in charge of adoptions for Hall County.  Guess what?  She's out of town and Monday is a furlough day!!  What have I done in  a past life to deserve this??!!  By this time, it's after 5:00.  What a fiasco we have gotten ourselves into.  What are we to do?  We must have the inked prints for the FBI and we needed it done---last month!  Also, we need the Live Scan prints done for the GBI but we need to register on a website prior to having those done.  So, no go for launch today on that one---our mission was scrubbed. 

On to Saturday night.  The youth at our church hosted a soup dinner as a fundraiser.  Chad made a crock pot full of corn chowder for them.  So, we took it to the church and stayed to eat with them.  While there, we were discussing our fingerprint fiasco from Friday.  After hearing our story, Meritta--our pastor's wife, started thinking of who we could speak with about getting the prints done.  Sunday morning she asks me if we have found a place to get them done yet.  I told her no and that we were so frustrated we weren't sure what we needed to do.  Well, she remembered that a gentleman who goes to church with us is a former FBI agent.  BINGO!  Later that afternoon, we get a call from him.  Meritta and Ricky had called him on our behalf.  He told us that he would need to call around to find out who has the ink...but he was sure he would find a place for us to have the ink prints done. We have lift off!  On Monday morning around 8:30 I notice that I have a voice mail.  It's from our FBI friend, Terry.  He has found out that Dawson County Jail has the ink and they would be glad to do the prints for us.  So, I sent Chad a message to call Dawson County to find out the times.  When he called, they told him they do prints until 5:00.  So, at 4:00 we meet in Dawsonville to head to the jail.  Halfway there, I can't find my wallet.  Thinking that I had left it in my car, we turn around and go back to Kroger.  It's not there.  Guess where it was???  It had fallen out in the floorboard of the truck,  so I had it all along.  Oops!  So, here we go....heading back to the jail, er, I mean the detention center.  We get there at like 4:30.  The "overly nice" lady up front says, "we only do prints until 4:00."  Here's when it almost got nasty.  "Listen lady, we spoke with someone earlier who said they did it until 5:00.  We have driven like a bat out of Hades to get here."  The really nice lady says, "let me call someone to see."  I'm like, "you better or I'm going back there."  Well, it turns out since the guy told Chad they did it until 5:00, he said he would do the prints for us.  Yippee!!! That guy was awesome!  He made up for the "overly nice lady" at the front.  After he did the prints, I was going to pay him the $10 fee to do the prints.....he said not to worry about it.  Amazing....the Lord was in this the entire time.  He knew what we needed.  I prayed on Sunday that we would get the help we needed to do the inked prints....God answered in His time.  It reminds me of a song that goes, "Down the road comes Jesus, right on time."

Yesterday, I went to the Post Office, got a Money Order to send with the fingerprints and I mailed the package Priority Mail to the FBI in West Virginia.  Now we wait----"I'm waiting on You, Lord."  Today, we are going to the Metro PCS on Atlanta Hwy to have our Live Scan prints done for the GBI.  Those prints and criminal record check will be back in 48 hours.  I still don't understand why we can't use Live Scan prints for both FBI and GBI.  It seems all the counties around use the Live Scan for both...I don't know why our agency won't accept it.  But, it's not for me to understand.  You can't tell me that the Lord didn't have control over this situation, because I know He did.  We would have never found a place to have the inked prints done if the Lord had not been working on both ends of the situation.  I give thanks and honor and praise to Him.

Keep praying everyone.....the Lord is good.  He is watching over us right now.  I feel like we are being blessed beyond measure during this time of going through the process of adoption.  The Lord is in control of this situation.  I know in His plan, He has a child already chosen for us and it truly will be our child.  We are still working on our profile book....it's a slow process because we need to make certain that every word and every picture are chosen precisely. 

Until next time, may God richly bless you,

Lorissa