Mapquest ALMOST gave accurate directions...

We received our 2nd summons for fingerprinting. I had Lee fill out vacation forms for 1/2 day from work to get this done. He beeped me and asked what he should put for a reason for absence. We finally came up with "summoned by Home Land Security." Heee....

We had to go to Waukegan. If it sounds far away, that's because it is. We had to be there at 8 a.m. We left our house at 6 a.m. We took the back roads that Mapquest recommended, and it did look ultimately shorter than taking 90 to 94. More direct. After bad traffic light mojo in various small towns, we pulled in at 7:55. Whew. Mapquest let us down at this point: had us go north on a street, then making a u-turn, and going south on the same street. Um...

I have mentioned before about how hard these Gov't buildings are to find. This one was no exception. It was wedged in between a laundromat and other nondescript businesses in a seedy mini-mall. And it was called "INS Support Center". Now, THAT particular name was not on ANY of our documents.

[Also, maybe I didn't mention this before, but the 1st time we got these forms, I received 2 and Lee received 2. Same times, same dates. The 2nd time we got the forms in the mail, Lee got 1 and I got 3. 2 of mine were for 8 a.m. and one was for 9 a.m. What the?]

So, we line up with the people waiting outside, and are given a form to fill out. I whispered to Lee, "Don't they have all this information? I mean, like our addresses?" He said "yes." oh, ok. Then we got led to the fingerprinting machines and the fingerprinter(?) types in the information from the forms. (Surely, the government agencies could coordinate this information?) The fingerprint machines are cool. There's a little plate of glass that reads your prints, and they show up on the computer screen. Neat.

Let's Get Physical

Lee and I took the day off yesterday to get physicals and to get fingerprinted.

The fingerprinting went quickly. The place opened at 9 and we were not the only ones waiting at about 8:50. The fingerprinting "office" was a teeny tiny room in an office complex, and there was one lady with a laptop and a digital fingerprinting machine on a folding table. Our experience here was much better than the one we had at the USCIS last year. (We'll get to do that one again as well, so I'll write about that later.)

On to the physicals. We had 2 different forms for each of us to be filled out by the Dr. One for the DCFS and one for our agency (the one that goes to Ethiopia). DCFS apparently only cares about 2 things: 1. Do you have TB? and 2. Can you lift a child? The Dr. and I were laughing about that. "Oh, so you can have any other disease... just not TB?" The other (international) form was more intensive (HIV, HepB, urine sample)... so we gave some blood too. And urine. This may be TMI, but what is wrong with me that I cannot pee correctly into the cup? I once again peed all over my hand, and barely got enough for them to sample. Hope some form somewhere doesn't ask about THAT!

We worked on paperwork all afternoon. I think I have a better handle on the forms than last time. It didn't seem quite so daunting, even though, technically, there is more to do for Ethiopia than for the Ukraine. I was able to order our marriage license and birth certificates online. Also, I was able to email people from whom we needed official letters. I'm wondering how all this was possible without technology.