This morning we went back to the BCIS to get Naomi's fingerprints done again. I talked to them about our situation. I explained to them that if her prints failed a second time we would be required to get police clearance reports for every jurisdiction we lived in over the past five years. Plus, we would have to drive to the Charlotte CIS office (170 miles away) and she would have to give a sworn statement.
They told us that if her prints were rejected the first time, they'd be rejected the second time. They said it had very little to do with their ability to capture the prints and more to do with her actual prints. Some people just have bad prints that can't be recorded at the level required to read them effectively.
Wow... okay. So we'll just wait for the next letter and take it from there. They did attempt a different method of fingerprinting her though. The first time they used ink and paper. This time they used a computer to scan her prints. Will it make a difference? Probably not. But we'll wait and see.
Posted by Mark at March 5, 2004 11:33 PMSo does that mean that Naomi would make a good criminal, since no one can seem to fingerprint her correctly? LOL
Posted by: Stephen at March 5, 2004 11:49 PMStay DETERMINED!! Don't let anything stop you from getting to your baby girl. Everytime you feel like giving up, remember that God has already"matched" you with your daughter and she NEEDS you! If an obstacle is put in your path find a way over, around or under it. Sometimes God tests us to see if we are willing to do whatever it takes to follow His plan. During our paperchase it seemed everytime we turned around there was some problem that seemed unsolvable. But we are proof that "when there's a will; there's a way" because our dossier's at the CCAA, right now. Best wishes....
Posted by: Kim at March 7, 2004 01:02 AMThe computer is soooo much better! It tells you right then wether or not they are readable. I can't believe they used ink the first time! Wishing you the best!
Posted by: ModernMother Tamra at March 8, 2004 12:06 PMThat's a bunch of BS when they say "if they are bad the first time, they'll be bad the second time". For our first adoption, my husband's fingerprints failed the first time around. He passed with flying colors the second time - and it was the SAME MACHINE! Don't give up hope :)
Posted by: Carrie at March 9, 2004 11:47 PMLike I told Naomi the other night, you guys are more than welcome to stay with us if you need to come to Charlotte, although I hope you don't need to come, but we would love to see you both again either way.
Posted by: Jaime Wilson at March 19, 2004 10:13 PMHi Mark,
When we had our fingerprints done (by the computer thingie which is really cool--the lady let me look over her shoulder and she explained things to me...I asked lots of questions) I assumed mine would come out well because I'm a white collar worker. My husband is a phone man and climbs telephone poles all day. I figured his would be difficult to read.
Nope!
The lady told me people whose hands get a lot of rough abuse have the best fingerprints because ALL the dead skin is gone and only the prints are left. People whose hands are kept soft and lily white (like me) have prints that can be more difficult to "take"
I am chuckling as I read your blog. I know your frustration and your pain. Our paperchase had lots of speed bumps and a couple of bridge-outs. I figure it's because our daughter isn't born yet. We're adopting with Great Wall China Adoptions. Our dossiers were sent to China yesterday. I thought we'd never get it all done... but we did. You will too.
Annie Smith in Ohio
Posted by: Annie Smith at April 3, 2004 09:57 PMHey Annie,
That's awesome! Congratulations. I can't wait until the day I can post our DTC date on here.
Speed bumps. You bet. We know all about them. But we're going to stay focused and keep moving forward. And hey, we're getting close!
Posted by: :: Mark :: at April 3, 2004 10:12 PMFingerprints vary in quality from person to person, but it's likely that yours are fine (meaning, OK).
Generally speaking, 'blue collar' type workers (i.e. stone masons, builders) can have terrible fingerprint ridge structure...they're constantly wearing off the skin that forms the ridges. The same is also true for folks (again, generalizing) who shuffle a lot of paper (i.e. bank tellers, envelope-stuffers), because the paper has a simlar effect.
In the *vast* majority of cases, though, bad recording of fingerprints is due to operator error...and the quality produced by ink/paper (done properly) still beats any computerized recording system in existence.
This comment misses the larger point of your blog, I know...sorry about that. I just wanted to clarify a bit about the fingerprint thing.
Posted by: John Bowen at May 7, 2004 10:40 AM