Fingerprinted AGAIN

Today we spent the afternoon at the Charlotte ASC center being fingerprinted again. Today was a terrible day to go. Our appointment was at 2pm and we didn't get fingerprinted until almost two hours later. Last time it only took us about 30 minutes. Neither of us took anything to read or entertain us so we had to TALK to each other. Wow! That's something neither of us do without kids anymore unless it's after bedtime.

So, for those that don't know how this works, this is what happens when you show up at the Application Support Center.

1) Walk through door to stand in line.
2) After waiting in this line, you show appointment date/time papers and hand over ID to first person.
3) ID is paperclipped to paper and you are told to go fill out another form
4) Sit down and fill out pretty much everything they already have except add on height, weight and color of eyes and hair. Two colors were added to the eye color selection - Maroon and Pink. Ok, maybe pink for pink eye (infection of the eye) but Maroon?
5) Finish up on that sheet to stand in line again.
6) Go up to desk to hand over paperwork that he paperclips to application and ID already paperclipped together. A number is then handed over to you. (We were 019 and 020 and the number on the board said 988 at that time.)
7) Sit back down again to wait but at least you are sitting this time waiting on number on board to change.
8) Numbers finally change. Walk all paper work to another desk and hand it over. The small piece of paper is given back and you are told to sit down once again and wait for number to be called.
9) Finally, you get called back by the person that is going to enter all the info into the computer and take fingerprints. After all this waiting, couldn't someone have already done this part of entering in the info into the computer?
10) After fingerprints are taken, you are given a survey to fill out.

I've been watching too many home decorating shows. One of the first things I said to Tony when we walked in was that this place needed a decorator. It's one big open room with blue walls and nothing else. They had two magazine racks that I saw with no magazines in them and no one was reading any. There was a tv with a sign to not turn it on. No cell phones allowed. You are expected to sit there in the uncomfortable chairs for two hours looking straight ahead for your number to be called. Oh what a fun afternoon it was today.

We're trying to decide if we need to update our I-171H. It expires 2/9/07. If we are in the next referral batch, it's possible we'll travel before this date. If not, we'll need to send more money to renew this. We had no idea when we started all this in April 05 that we would not have Madelyn before the homestudy, fingerprints and I-171H expired. She's worth doing it all over again many times!!!