Fingerprint Day - Again!

So the thing about fingerprints, you would assume, is that they never change, right?  So you'd think that once a Federal Agency (like, hmmm, the State Department) has your fingerprints on file, then they could check them against criminal history whenever they want.  You would think, and that's what they do on TV.  The strange thing, is that fingerprints, much like milk or batteries or cheese, have an expiration date.  This is odd to me, since if they never change, and somehow if you are ever arrested and your prints can magically appear in a police database years, often decades later. 

But the one thing I guess I've learned in this process is that clearly, government agencies need communications coaches.  They do not know how to talk to each other, and they have selective hearing. The fingerprints in my FBI file do not count.  The fingerprints taken for the State Bar do not count.  The thumbprint I have to give at the bank to cash a check doesn't count. The fingerprints taken 3 previous times for the same Federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security, do not count for the purposes of adopting a child.  But you better believe if they ever hear that I'm ever charged with a crime (like perhaps losing my mind and assaulting a government employee during the fingerprinting process) my fingerprints will magically appear and have no expiration date.

So we make the trek to south Fort Worth again today, to a seedy, decrepit shopping mall above the stinky food court to submit, once again, to the underpaid, perpetually frowning USCIS fingerprinting clerks who have the future of our family in their hands.

The good news is that once our fingerprints are approved (again), we are that much closer to meeting Keira. However, my prints are starting to feel like they are not good enough. All this testing and retesting is not good for their self-esteem.  Intense therapy, inclusive of a spa manicure may be in order after they're done with me today.