Cancelled

Yesterday I made arrangements with Wendy to pick up Marina from school when she got her daughter, and take her with them to swimming class. We were scheduled to have our first of three home visit meetings with Maggie (our social worker from Heartsent). As I was getting onto the freeway to make my lunchtime fingerprinting appointment at the El Monte CIS office, I received a call from Maggie asking if we could reschedule for tomorrow. After calling Fernando, I called her back to let her know that was fine. I was a little disappointed, because I want to get EVERYTHING done ALREADY and just wait for our referral. Could I be any more impatient? Anyway, back to CIS. I got to the office (on the second floor of a diminutive strip mall (with no parking!) and the kind security guard informed me that I had to go back to my car to drop off my mobile phone, because they were not allowed inside the office. He gave me a number and I was off. My number was called fairly swiftly and I thought "wow, this is going quite smoothly...I thought too soon. Once my invitation was marked, I was told to wait in the other waiting area (same room with the chairs facing in a different direction) and wait for my same number to be called. The little screen said "160" (the same number than when I took my phone to the car), the number in my hand read "185." I know I shouldn't complain, but this is only an observation...it seems that the people in this office are, most likely, trained with the people from the DMV, because they all seem to walk at the same slow rate, and avoid eye contact with anyone sitting in the waiting area. It is quite difficult not to begin fuming after 30 minutes have passed and the number on the screen is 165. Somehow I kept my spirits up and thought of all the time that I will be waiting for our referral and how this was a good exercise in patience. Once my fingerprints were done I felt an overwhelming sense of relief knowing that this got us closer to bringing our baby home. Fernando will probably go get his fingerprints done at the same place. I will make sure he takes good reading material with him...the two televisions there are not a good way to spend your time.