Walk In

Luke and I took a chance and drove to Atlanta today and were able to "walk in" for our biometrics (fingerprints) at the ASC office.  I had read online (on one of the million adoption blogs I now follow) that on Tuesday-Friday you could successfully walk in after 1 PM.

We arrived around 1:00 and waited in line to sign in.  The officer at the door was actually very friendly and took our names after checking our ASC appointment notice form (which stated our appointment wasn't until July 29).  He told us it had been a busy day and to check back in about an hour.  We debated between standing outside (you are not allowed to go inside the building if you are waiting) or sitting in the car.   Then Luke suggested we drive down the road and get a drink somewhere.  LOL Yes, that's what we decided on.  We found a small Mexican restaurant and each ordered an adult beverage and an appetizer to share.

After about 45 minutes we drove back to the ASC office and waited some more.  The line was very short and the officer was making a last call for those with appointments (for that day).  He then started to call people from the walk in list one by one.  Luke and I were eventually called, headed inside to fill out more paperwork and wait some more.

The time it actually took to capture the biometrics was less than 10 minutes.  This is set #3 of fingerprints for the adoption.  I showed Noah's picture to a lot of people that were also waiting although no one else was there for an adoption.  We did meet some interesting people and of course received some comments about adoption.  One man said he had heard about the Hopkins, "you are adopting 4 kids, right?" he asked.  I was pretty sure that was a joke and smiled.  Another lady said, "you must come from a really large family, huh?"  I said no, Luke and I  have just one sibling each.  She was surprised and shared that she though most people that adopt come from big families.  

After we were finished we hurried home hoping to avoid rush hour traffic and get back to Ella and Beckett (at home with a babysitter).  The whole trip took 4 hours.  I'm really glad we decided to take a shot at the "walk in" as we would still be waiting another 20 days to be fingerprinted had we not.  I plan to call USCIS tomorrow to let our immigration officer know we had our biometrics captured already.  It's possible it might speed up the approval process.  Maybe this will cut a few weeks off of Noah's wait too.