Tour de Texas

Today we made the Tour de Texas and drove to San Antonio and back in 1 day! Ahhhh, what a refreshing way to spend a Saturday afternoon! We made the trip to San Antonio so we could get our fingerprints done by the Department of Homeland Security. This is one of the required steps before they will give us official permission to bring an orphan into the country. I managed to find out that they had walk-in hours on Saturdays and by the grace of God Bryan had today off! We are so thankful that we got the fingerprint notice when we did because his next available weekend to drive all over Texas with me is not until the end of June! God had perfect timing on this one.

We decided to stop in Gruene, TX (just outside of New Braunfels) to eat at the Gristmill... and of course Paper Baby made the trip too! By now Paper Baby is just a little cut-out paper face because the rest of P.B. went to California to be translated. (Notice Paper Baby goofing off in the center of the rusty sign!)

We took a couple pictures of Paper Baby on this glorious Tour de Texas, because let's face it - this is one well-traveled baby! Bryan is such a good sport posing with our oh-so-photogenic paper child at the restaurant:

I decided to order the "Gruene Country Club Sandwich". The menu failed to mention that the sandwich would be as big as my face. Although this is not adoption related, it is worth posting about because this sandwich was a MONSTER. Seriously - I think they put an entire turkey on that sandwich. I was intimidated and only able to eat half.

After lunch we headed into San Antonio to the Department of Homeland Security. We were surprised to find that it was located in a strip shopping center next to a Tuesday Morning and a nail salon. Is it just me or is this not very official looking? How convenient that you can get fingerprinted for international adoption and then head next door to buy some 400 thread count sheets on close out.

When we got inside everything was pretty serious... no joking around with the Department of Homeland Security folks! We filled out some paperwork and they called us back immediately. They did our fingerprints (or as they call it "biometrics") on a computerized fingerprint machine... this was no Fingerprinting EZ Bake Oven like we saw at the Temple Police Department! They would roll our fingers on a sensor and the fingerprints would show up on the screen and be analyzed. I felt like a pretty big dork because I kept saying 'That is so cool' over and over again.

For those of you who have been following along faithfully in our adoption adventure, Bryan's thumb obesity managed to not rear its ugly head during today's appointment. I guess the Department of Homeland Security is used to fat digits.

We didn't realize how excited we were about this step until it was all said and done. It feels like a big step to cross off the list. We tried to take a picture to capture the exciting moment with Paper Baby outside the Immigration office. Bryan looks kinda squinty/mad in the picture, but that is what happens when you take a picture of yourselves while facing the sun in 100 degree weather!

Now it is time for us to "hurry up and wait"... wait for the Embassy to open, wait for a referral, wait for our I-171H. Our part is done now and it's up to God to orchestrate the rest!