So, today was quite a day!!  I (notso)patiently waited all day for my passport...in between a dr. appt./more paperwork for the doc to fill out, a lunch meeting for a board I serve on, a fingerprint appointment, picking up kids and a track meet.  Shane told me not to worry.  I wasn't worried.  Just antsy.  But in my "antsy" fully leaning on the Lord -- and the USPS.  8-)

Funny story (and a testimony of God's provision for us today):  We scheduled a fingerprint appointment for today at 2:20 for me and 2:30 for Shane.  The woman I talked to to schedule it was "new" at the job and it took about 25 minutes and 2 phone calls to get it all done.  Honestly, I didn't have much confidence that we actually had appointments till I got the confirmation email.  So, she told me when we had the fingerprints made to be sure to let them know that it was for an international adoption.  Got it.  We arrived at our appointment at a place in Odessa - about 20 miles away that neither of us had ever been to before about 2 minutes early.  On the way, I remembered that the phone girl had told me that we needed to take a check or cashier's check.  I panic.  Shane said, I have some cash, surely they'll take cash.  I asked him how much, he said $22.00, but the prints are only $10./ea. Wrong. Phone girl told me they were $24.95 each.  Luckily, I had some cash too. I pulled out my wallet and had $27.00 and some loose change.  Our total bill was going to come to $49.90.  We made it!!

We thought.  Got to the "office" (in a strip mall, with an unmarked glass door, identified only by address) and were "greeted" by a young girl in a tight aeropostle t-shirt, jeans with holes and a bad attitude.  I pulled out our cash and she pointed to a sign and told us "we don't accept cash".  Oh, sorry, I thought we were still in America!!??  What kind of establishment doesn't accept CASH????  Only personal checks or money orders.  We are hosed. I asked her if she had HER checkbook and we could pay HER cash to write a check for us.  She wasn't allowed to do that.  We asked for a later appointment so we could go find a money order...nope.  Booked for the day -- every 10 minutes from 2:20 till 5. "Well," I asked, "Can you go ahead and do mine while he goes to find a money order then he can come back and pay and do his?" I almost watched my husband have an out of body experience as the answer was once again "nope".  We quickly left and drove like the wind to try to find a place to get a money order.  After driving past 3 banks (none of which were ours), we found a convenience store.  RAN (literally) in to the store with NO customers in it (miracle #1) and asked the lady behind the counter if they did money orders.  She said they did.  We asked how much.  She said under $500 was $.99.  Again, hosed.  We had $50.44 (and that included a penny and quarter that we found in Shane's car!) and needed $50.89 to pay for the money order.  I told her we were in a huge time crunch trying to get our fingerprints made for an adoption application and she commented "how neat!" We asked if we could give her our Visa for the remainder of the 45 cents and she said "don't worry about it" and printed out our money order and sent us on our way. (miracle #2)  Lord, BLESS that woman!!

We got back to the "office" 8 minutes after we left it to find 3 "seedy" looking characters there waiting.  Apparently, this place does drug testing as well as passport photos in addition to the finger prints.  Pretty sure that at least one of the guys was there on an attempted drug-free day hoping he could give a drug-free sample...not so sure he passed.  Because they got there before we did (even though we were back for our 2nd appointment scheduled time), they got to go first.  Miss Attitude was not only our receptionist, but the lone employee of the establishment and, thus, the fingerprinter.  After calling us each back and taking our prints, I mentioned to her that we needed to be sure that she put the request in for the International Adoption check so we can have the results certified and notarized by the DPS.  She said "We don't do that here."  I needed to request that when I'd talked to phone girl earlier.  I'm standing amazed at the unbelievable ineptness I'm dealing with in this entire situation!!  She said to call that number back and see if there was anything they could do to change it.  Called them back.  They told me to call DPS.  Got someone at DPS with a brain and a little experience and she gave me instructions to fax them a signed request, came home, typed it up, printed it off and sent it with Shane back to the office.  WHAT AN ORDEAL!!!  But we have our fingerprints --- AND my passport!!!  It was waiting for me when I got home from picking the kids up from school!!  Thank You, Lord!!!!! 

Sorry for the long post...but I needed to remember this story to tell "Yuri" when he gets home...after he learns English.

Oh, and my amazing track star child got 2nd place in the 100 hurdles and 3rd in the 300 hurdles!!  Great way to end the day!

Goodnight.