God Did It!!!!!!!!!

He paved the way and granted us favor with the immigration officers in Atlanta to get our fingerprints taken 3 weeks early!!  Alleluia!!!

We arrived at 10:30am, left our cellphones in the car, entered the building and was greeted by a friendly guard / immigration officer.  He was actually the same fellow that checked us in, March of 2010 when we first started our adoption journey.  We didn't get far because I had my purse and a tote bag with reading materials.  I got to keep the books, but the purse and bag had to go back to the car.  While Eric ran back to our vehicle, the officer and I chatted and I told him I remembered him from last year.  He asked about our adoption and it was all very relaxed and friendly.  The chatting was good, I thought.  Get on good terms with the immigration officer so he likes us and will want to help us. ;)

When Eric returned, we each filled out a form with all our pertinent information and returned it to the same officer, along with our IDs and our fingerprint appointment letters.  The whole time he checked us in and stamped our paperwork and reviewed our materials, I kept thinking, "Is he going to notice the date?  Is he going to notice that we showed up 3 weeks early??  Is he going to care???"

Well he did notice the date.  Without looking up from his desk, he said, "You guys aren't even supposed to be here today..."  With barely a pause, he continued processing us and sent us to the waiting area to be fingerprinted.  Woohoo and Praise God!!!

The rest was easy peasy breezy.  We waited about 20-30 minutes, and the lady who printed us was super nice and asked about our adoption.  She gave our appointment letter back to us, never having looked at the date, and sent us on our way!  Wow.  What a huge burden lifted.  We have been singing God's praises all day long!

Next Step???
Tomorrow I call our immigration officer and give her the great news that we have new fingerprints and ask her if there is some way to expedite the processing of our approval.  I will also call the National Visa Center to let them know they should be receiving our updated fingerprint approval soon.  I will also very nicely ask them to expedite the process and please quickly cable our approval to AIT. 

THEN we will be back on track.  Yeah, baby!!!

When you're up against a struggle
That shatters all your dreams
And your hope's been cruelly crushed
By Satan's manifested scheme
And you feel the urge within you
To submit to earthly fears
Don't let the faith your standing in
seem to disappear

Praise the Lord!
He can work through those who praise Him
Praise the Lord!
For our God inhabits praise
Praise the Lord!
For the chains that seem to bind you
Serve only to remind you
That they drop powerless behind you
When you praise Him...

(Russ Taff - "Praise the Lord")