ADVENTURES IN BUREAUCRACY

We had to get copies of a clear police report from our county and fingerprints. (we thought) So one morning we worked it out with our jobs to go to Bartow (our county seat) to get this stuff. First, we live in the tippy top of Polk County, as some of you know, and Bartow is 40mi one way! We get to the Sheriff’s office and say ok we are here for our clearance thingy and we need fingerprints for adoption paperwork. The lady asks if we have a card.. a wah? A card.. .. A card for what.. She finally explains, the card to put the prints on.. Oh that.. no, we thought you had them. She says no we don’t, but you can get them over at the Courthouse (which luckily is right next door!) ok. So we walk over. And

>>side note<<>Have you been sniffed? No, not by your dog.. but by a bomb sniffer machine! Very interesting… it looks like a metal detector on steroids! You walk in and it shoots all this air at ya.. then you just stand there and wait for the light to turn green. David says ut oh as we walk in the door.. what do you mean ut oh? Then I remember.. that’s right this man works with Pyro on occasion.. turns out it was ok..(he had clean clothes on and his shoes were pyro-free!) whew!

Then I get up to the metal detector and the guy asks.. “you have any electronic devices in your purse”.. oh um.. sure.. here’s my phone, my blackberry and my portal XM radio..(dang should have left it in the car) he was like.. cool XM! We walk up to the Information Desk and ask where to get the cards and the lady tells us the Sheriff’s office, um no they sent us here. She gets a bit exasperated and directs us to the first double doors on the left, TRY there.. well no it was the second door the first set were Admin offices! So we go to the Clerk of Court area, where folks pay their fines and stuff like that. And ask for the cards, the woman says.. you get those at the Sheriff’s office..um no they sent us here. (We tried to be really nice about it!! People tend to help you more if you aren’t nasty!)

So her supervisor calls the Sheriff’s office.. then after several minutes they want to talk to us! So they hand David the phone and after David talks with them he says that the Sheriff’s Office has the Crimnal cards.. not the adoption ones and they are here in the Courthouse.. somewhere! OK.. well the lady at the teller says.. why don’t you try Civil. Um ok. Where is that? Luckily it’s just down the hall!

Off we go down the hall. Two women at the desk ask if they can help us.. I exclaim.. Yes we are on a scavenger hunt!!! Do you have the fingerprint cards for Adoption here.. Yes, she replies.. Eureka! How much? Oh they are free!! Even better! How many do we want? Two please! So after we left that office, we made a point to tell the folks in the Clerk’s office AND the Information desk where the cards are so the next couple doesn’t have to go thru all that!

Next stop is the Passport office (I need to fix the name on my passport.. long story) Turns out they don’t do that.. I just have to mail it to Miami with my old passport and a Certified copy of our marriage license.. I hesitate.. I only have one extra copy and it’s for the Adoption Agency.. no prob we do that right here! So for only $2.50 she got us another copy. I had one with me so it had all the codes on it .. so it was a quick and easy thing..

Now it’s back to the Sheriff’s office where we fill out our cards and pay for our background checks (only $13) and get fingerprinted.

This whole process took .. oh about an hour! Seemed longer at the time.. then we drove back to work. Fun fun. And It turns out.. we didn’t need the fingerprints for the application!!! We’ll have to do it again for the USCIS(new INS) for our Federal paperwork and it’s not free!! Argh.

Whew.. now you are all up to date!