There is much about the adoption process that is a pain. At least the second time through, much of the process makes more sense. We can see better how some things go together. And yet, much of the process only reveals the ineffeciency, idiocy, and ridiculousness of the government. And doggone it, a similar issue really has my craw again. Fingerprints. Yeah, fingerprints. Those simple things on your hands that you forever hear are unique to you. You can watch 5 shows per night in which some bad guy is captured as the result of his fingerprints being left somewhere incriminating. And yet, for some reason if you are going to adopt a child, the dumb things EXPIRE in 18 months. Yep, you got it. Some how, if you need them for an adoption, after 18 months...POOF, they just aren't any good anymore. Oh yeah, and when they do expire, you have to pay a bunch more money to get them done again. Gee, can you say "racket"?
So that was our experience last time. They expired so we had to get them again. This time, our fingerprints are causing a bit of a different issue. I took some time off work today and Maren passed on Bible study so that we could go get our FBI fingerprints and our BCII fingerprints. Amazingly, since we did this the last time, it now appears that you can get them in the same spot whereas before, we had to go to two different locations to get our fingerprints taken twice. Nevermind the fact that they take the prints digitally now rather than the old ink format. It would be waaaaaaaay to easy to simply email the things to the other organization like the rest of the world does. But, alas, it seemed as if things became more efficient. Bravo government. So we get to the Clerk of Courts in Butler County who proceeds to tell us that they can only send the fingerprints to one location. We needed them to go to three. They repeatedly assured me that this was not possible. For $57, they could only send them to one location. I then asked if they could just give them to us. No way could that happen. We are not permitted to have our own fingerprints apparently. We can carry the original but not a copy. Ok, got it. Anyway, after going round and round with the lady explaining why we needed three copies, she kept insisting that it was not possible. I was flabbergasted. For real? How hard is it to hit "print" three times and address 3 envelopes. She finally called over a supervisor (not because I was belligerent...I wasn't but because she didn't understand). The supervisor assured us that it was in fact possible to send them to three places. It would just cost us $57 EACH TIME!!!!!! Arrrrrrggggghhh.
Finally though, she gave us a bit of good news. She told us that the sheriff's office does them for about $30 cheaper. Ok great, can you direct us there? Well, I can she says but they only do fingerprints Monday-Thursday from 8am-3pm. And, of course, today is Friday. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE ONLY DOES FINGERPRINTS DURING THAT TIME FRAME???? If I ever commit a crime, I have made a mental note that I am only going to do it at night when they can't fingerprint me. Heck, I can keep good criminal hours. Perhaps I will commit the crime at 4pm and then get away free since they can't fingerprint me. I wondered out loud if I pulled into the sheriff's parking lot and kicked one of the patrol cars if while they were fingerprinting me if I could simply ask them to forward it onto our needed addresses. I was told that would probably hurt our chances to adopt.
So now we wait again until we can arrange time during ridiculous hours. Seriously though. Think about that. We CAN'T get fingerprinted at the sheriff's office except during normal working hours. In other words, if you are a contributing member of society on day shift, you have to take personal time from work to get fingerprinted. But, if you are a criminal, you can get fingerprinted at any time. Heck, they will probably even come to your home to accomodate you. Good grief.
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