Easier

Okay folks, this is a long story so prop your feet up and bare with me!

When you are adopting, you have to get fingerprinted like a ZILLION times.  One of the things we need is a FBI background check but we need it to come from the FBI, not the quick electronic ones.  So, as soon as we committed to Lillie (hadn't committed to Jocelyn yet) we sent our prints in and waited.  It takes about 6 weeks to get them back.  I was so excited when they came back but that quickly turned to concern.  Jared's were approved but mine were rejected.  Okay, well we had submitted them early so it wasn't holding us up, no big deal. 

I had my prints re-taken and re-sent them in, confident they would be approved this time.  I didn't have any trouble with my prints when we adopted Eli, so I wasn't overly concerned.  I called at the 4 week mark just to check on them and they were REJECTED again.   Duh duh duh....  I asked the lady at the FBI what to do and she said I had to submit a third set and see if they were rejected again, OH and we had to pay again for it.  We didn't have to re-pay to submit the second set but for the third set we did.  Great. 

So we re-did and re-sent and felt MUCH less confident this time around.  I've been calling at least once a week for the last several weeks.  I actually have talked to a very nice lady at the FBI several times.  She even called me at home after we talked the first time because she said she couldn't stop thinking of us and our story.  So I called and got her again today, which is crazy to me that the last three times I've called I've gotten her.  Must be a reason bc it is totally random who you get when you call.  So, today, my lovely FBI friend told me sad sad news...my prints have not been put into the system yet...and she is afraid they were lost somewhere, bc it is past the point in their system when they should be visable.  SIGH SIGH SIGH.   Tentatively, I asked her if I could send a set directly to her, praying she was moved to help us.  She told me that she was going to do everything in her power to help us.  We needed to retake them and then she would try and help us out.  As we got off the phone, she also told me she would pray for us. 

Called the hub-ster pretty frustrated that I had to drag the kids downtown to get ink and electronic prints.  I dont' love going to our downtown, it's hard to drive and park and i'm a baby and it scares me a little.  I also HATE dragging the kids around down there.  Hubby agreed to let me pick him up (he works downtown) and sit in the car with the kids while I got my fingerprints done. 

So we got to the justice center and I waited in a line behind people who were checking on their warrant status's and visiting inmates....super duper fun.  I kept my head down and my eyes on the prize lol.  Got to the front desk and the lady who you pay couldn't understand why I needed electronic and ink prints.  Told her that was what my  new friend at the FBI told me to do for our best chance to get them approved.  She sent me back (without paying) to talk to the cops in the fingerprint section.  I explained my story to the lady-cop in the back.  She was a bit incredulous but super nice.  AND I handed her my money to pay and she went to get me change and brought ALL my money back to me and told me to KEEP it!  Say WHAT????????  Wow!!!  So she said my fingerprints were great and she thinks the place who did the electronic ones must have screwed something up.  She was SO NICE!!!!

It got me to thinking.  Thinking about adoption and all the paperwork and hassle it can be.  It would be so much EASIER for us not to run here and there and everywhere getting all this stuff done.  Truthfully, life at home is pretty smooth right now.  Eli has transitioned beautifully and has very few issues.  It would be EASIER not to bring home two more children who have disabilities.  One of whom I suspect is left to lay alone in her crib much of her day.  It would be EASIER to be content that I had done my part.  We "rescued" one child already. Isn't that enough? 

And maybe all this hassle and being rejected over and over are signs that we shouldn't be doing this?  But you know what I realized?  Instead of taking today and being frustrated and taking the signs as a negative thing, i'm choosing to look at the positives.  Not once but TWICE today I had strangers go out of their ways to HELP me, to help us bring the girls home.  Neither one of them had to do the things they did.  In fact, it would have been easier for them to do the very minimum, and wash their hands of my case.  But they didn't.  And we won't either.  We don't need easier.  When I look at my girl's faces, I don't see easier, but I see how our family will be BETTER for having them in our lives.  And that is enough.