7 Quick Takes #46

In which we travel to Milwaukee on short notice, as part of the process to adopt “Valentine” (not his real name), the 10-year-old orphan from Eastern Europe that we hosted for the summer.

1.  Last Friday afternoon, Don and I received notices in the mail to appear at an office in Milwaukee for the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to capture our biometric information.  Having USCIS take fingerprints for everyone in the household who is 18 years old or older is a necessary step in an international adoption.
2.  The appointments were scheduled for yesterday (Thursday) at 9 am.  I’m in a couple online adoption groups and based on what other people have said, I was expecting to have several weeks to a month’s notice from the time we received the appointment information until the actual fingerprinting.  Often, people will attempt to walk in to their local USCIS office to try to get their fingerprinting done earlier, if the office is not too busy and will accommodate them.  However, our “local” USCIS office is about a five and a half hour drive each way (not counting stops), so walking in was not an option for us; we figured we’d just have to wait until our actual appointment time.  It took us by surprise that we had less than a week’s notice from the time we received the notices until our appointments.  Unfortunately, the quick fingerprinting doesn’t necessarily mean that our application will be processed any sooner; the processing is done at a different office.
3.  Despite the short notice, we pulled it off.  Because it’s such a long drive and our appointments were at 9 am, we had to go down Wednesday and spend the night.  However, Don had an important work event on Wednesday that he couldn’t miss.  We talked about having our appointments rescheduled, but we were concerned about how long we might have to wait if we did.  Eventually, we decided to leave in the early afternoon, after Don’s work commitment.  It wasn’t ideal, but at least we didn’t have to reschedule.
4.  Times like these are when it’s actually helpful that Don travels fairly frequently for work.  He was able to use Marriott reward points to get us a one-bedroom suite in a Residence Inn (our favorite hotel brand, because they have full kitchens and hot breakfasts).  Staying in a one- or two-bedroom suite is the way to go when you stay in a hotel with kids.  Younger kids can be sleeping in one room while adults and older kids are awake in another room, with a closed door between them.  Otherwise, when you stay in a hotel room with little kids, you try to put them to bed and then sit around in the dark yourself so you’re not disturbing them.  Being able to stay in a well-furnished suite (that we otherwise wouldn’t spend the money on) when we have to go somewhere is a small compensation for all the days I spend solo parenting when Don’s out of town.
   

   Clara playing in the hotel crib while we were packing up.

5.  The appointment itself went quite smoothly.  We allowed plenty of travel time between the hotel and the USCIS office, because we didn’t know how hard it would be to find the office and a place to park.  It turned out to be easy to locate and we found a free parking spot less than a block away.  We entered the building about 20 minutes before our appointment time, so we were among the first people with 9 o’clock appointments to check in.  Since they processed us mostly in the order in which we arrived, that meant we didn’t have to wait as long.  We were done and out of there before 9:30.  The women working there were friendly and efficient.  I was particularly impressed with the way one of them was engaging the kids (there were many there, including seven children in one family that was processed before us).  As native English speakers with US passports, we were certainly the oddballs in the waiting room.  I enjoyed seeing the diversity of people and I hope they all do well living in the United States.
6.  The driving was the less-than-fun part of the trip.  By my rough calculations, we spent about two-thirds of our waking hours between 1 pm Wednesday and 9 pm Thursday in the car.  I tried to be prepared by buying snacks, bringing water bottles, and getting books and audiobooks from the library.  However, I forgot to bring headphones for Simon to listen to the audiobooks with, so he was stuck with an uncomfortable pair of earbuds that was in Don’s work bag.  He didn’t like using them, so he didn’t listen for long.  I was able to read him a few books, but I had to focus a lot of attention on Clara, who only napped for 45 minutes on the way down (her only nap of the day).  It probably wouldn’t have been such a difficult trip in the summer, but with the early nightfall (it was dark by 6 pm), the boys couldn’t see to look at books or play with toys; they were still wide awake and bored.  After our appointment, we let the boys swim in the hotel pool before we checked out, ate lunch, and headed for home.  In retrospect, we should have skipped the swimming.  The pool was cold, they didn’t enjoy it much, and it would have been better for us to get on the road earlier so we could get home earlier.  We were all tired from being up late on Wednesday and Don and I were particularly tired because Clara had woken up screaming at least a half-dozen times during the night (she doesn’t sleep well away from home).
7.  This was just the first of many trips to Milwaukee for Valentine’s benefit.  The nearest children’s hospital to our house is in Milwaukee, so we plan to take him there twice a year to see a specialist for his medical condition.  From what little I saw of it, I liked Milwaukee; I’m sure I’ll get to know it better on future visits.  I just hope we can make the drive a little less like torture.

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