Among my Friday morning men's prayer group, all this fingerprinting has become known as Fantastic, Festive Fingerprint Fridays! Sometimes I've thought Festering Fingerprint Fridays might be a better title.
Until this past weekend, I've had all my adoption fingerprinting done at our local police department - and they only do them on Fridays before noon. With all the printing and re-printing, I think they know me by first name now!
I must admit, I was beginning to get a bit of a complex. Was it my fault? Was I not "relaxed" enough to get good prints?
After some research and phone calls to the MD office, I found out that they accept digital fingerprints! The caveat is: they only accept them from an approved agency within Maryland. (Most times, MD's government makes no sense to me.)
So, I drove 950 miles to Pikesville, MD (west of Baltimore) and back in 28 hours (with our boys). I got to the MD fingerprint office at 8:30 a.m. and I was done in an hour. Total cost of the trip, including gas, food and fingerprinting fees - $170. Seeing the MD fingerprint office in my rear view mirror - priceless.
I learned something from this experience that may be helpful to others. And it's so obvious, I would have tried it locally one more time before driving up there. You're gonna say, "Well, duh!" Here is my nugget of fingerprinting wisdom: find someone who does fingerprints all day, everyday, and have them do the prints.
No slight on the local PD guys, but I had a different officer do my prints each time I was in there. I know some of them took prints rarely. When I had my prints taken at the MD office, it was fast, easy and they looked great! When in doubt (and impatient), go with the pros.
See, I knew it couldn't be my fault.... Wish I could have saved myself ~ $165 and 15-16 hours of driving. In the end, it was worth getting it done, and learning the lesson.
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