Biometrics

So today was the day we headed to the cities to get our biometrics done. (Sounds like a strange kind of plastic surgery to me!) Biometrics are really just our fingerprints. We have already been fingerprinted locally, but in the wonderful world of adoption red tape, one must be fingerprinted by the local PD and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. So this morning, we trekked across the cities to St. Paul and a lowly little strip mall. We over estimated the amt of traffic we would face and arrived with time to spare. After a donut and coffee at the near by Cub Foods, we headed over to the strip mall. Gathered in front of this non-descript storefront, was a small parade of nations. There was a beautiful Sudanese woman, looking a little timid and unsure. Two women from Poland, briskly talking in their native tongue, scurried back and forth from their car. A family from Russia, with 7 children in tow, all scrubbed clean and wearing their Sunday best, eagerly waited first in line. There was a sweet tiny woman from Vietnam, who delighted me with her smile and there were two other families with "adopters" written all over their faces. The crowd was friendly and pleasant for 8 in the morning. Everyone stood around, glancing at watches, checking and re-checking the paperwork in their hands. At 8am and not a moment before, the blinds flew open, the door was unlocked and our sunny morning and friendly warmth was replaced with a sense of urgency and slight confusion. We were toward the middle of the line. As families approached the front desk, they were briskly handed a clipboard, admonished for not reading their letter if they still had a cell phone, and sent to sit and wait on a hard plastic chair. Welcome to America I thought. Picture a poorly decorated DMV office, with cheaply framed pics of the President and his cronies smiling down from the wall, and nervous tension hanging in the air. We got our clipboards and took a seat. We had to fill out the basics: name, address, phone number, etc. etc. I was actually nervous! There was such a sense of "don't screw this up!" and I speak and read English fluently! My heart ached for those with such high hopes sitting next to me in these chairs, agonizing over each blank. I wanted to shout...America is really better than this...it is the land of opportunity and a wonderful country...this is just our ugly underbelly.

We proceeded to the next step and turned over our clipboard. Being the chipper and polite people we are, we had struck up a conversation with the people next to us, which earned a slight frown from the woman processing our papers. Next we moved to another set of plastic chairs and waited for our number to be called. There was this underlying sense that I had done something wrong, not that I was completing the steps in the process to do something so right! We were quickly called to step up to the fingerprint machine. By 8:10, the woman taking the prints was already complaining it was going to be a long day, and although I thought I had broken through her tough shell and politely conversed with her, she wasn't about to crack a smile. It made me wonder if she realized how important her job was...helping to pave the way for people to achieve their dreams of adoption, citizenship, a green card...I'm sure rolling people's fingers across a scanner all day lacks a certain fun factor :) but what a great opportunity to meet so many diverse people with such a wide variety of stories and smiles.

When we were done, we were handed an evaluation card to fill out. Was the process quick...yes. Was the staff courteous...kind of. Was the facility clean..yes. Any suggestions? A smile goes a long way to ease a nervous heart.

So we are now done with another step of the process. That much closer to bring baby home. I celebrate each step of the process with a small purchase for the baby so on the way home, we picked up a baby name book... pretty fun to be searching those girl names! Anyone want to weigh in on the name Elia??? That is my current #1!