Fingerprinting

We just finished round 3 of fingerprinting for the adoption. You'd think they could share them among departments: FBI, USCIS, State of Georgia. Our third and hopefully last (for this adoption) fingerprint appointment was on Monday, June 18th at the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) office here in Atlanta. Time and again Nathan and I have commented that we're so blessed to live in Atlanta while going through the adoption process. Many families have to drive many, many miles to a USCIS office for this process. The office is only 30 minutes from us! The event was pretty painless but we were grew nervous about the wait time upon our arrival. I could suggest just a few hospitality tips that would make the process more pleasant but there seemed to be no takers for my suggestions. Upon arrival you walk in the door to a small "lobby"(I use lobby loosely since it's about a 6x6 square) that is blocked by a rope with a sign stating "STOP..DO NOT PROCEED BEYOND THIS POINT". Apparently they only allow a certain number of folks in the building at a time. This would all be fine except that the little space gets very full, very fast. There were at least 15 folks smashed into that little area. Everyone was pleasant but I did feel sorry for the moms with little children. I'll have to admit that my anxiety was growing at this point thinking "if we can't even get into the building, how long is it going to take once we pass "The Rope". Well, to our surprise and delight the rest of the time was very fast, efficient and pleasant. Good job USCIS, minus your greeting! We're now eagerly waiting on our approval from them in order to send our dossier to China!