FINGERPRINTING IN MEMPHIS

As it turns out, the Department of Homeland Security does not have an office in Little Rock.  So, when we filed for our I600, a petition to grant an orphan immigration to the states, we knew we were going to get an appointment for our fingerprinting.  It is assigned, about a month in advance, and for ours, we were told to show up in Memphis, today at 11:00 a.m.  Just like that.



So, we made a fun day trip out of it.  First stop, government office.  Not usually a place I would include on a "fun day trip," but since it was the entire reason for the trip, we went.  We arrived an hour early, and decided to go ahead and see if they could work us in.  Since there were only two other people in the entire lobby, it turned out just fine.  As we went through security, we had to hand the officers our appointment documents.



They looked at them, and then looked at us rather quizzically.  At that moment, we had to shamefully admit that our cat had eaten the top of those papers.  True story.  Of course she chose to exercise her first sign of paper-hunger on those very important documents.  Thankfully, they thought it was funny and said it would be no problem.

The finger-printing took less than 15 minutes, and then we were done!  Another step down.

We swung by the Pottery Barn Outlet and picked up a Halloween costume - Score!  Then, we ate lunch at the Elegant Farmer.  I had these delicious things -

Sweet Potato Soup



Caprese Salad (I am a sucker for this stuff almost anywhere)



and Key Lime Pie.  Yum.



We made a few other fun stops before heading home.  Having 2.5 hours in the car each way was a fun treat - having un-interuppted conversation is one of my favorite things in life.  Who knew what a gift that could be?

And where were the girls?  A good friend kindly agreed to keep them with her kids all day.  I think they had so much fun that they want to spend every day there.  What do you think, Keri?  (She also hosted us for dinner upon our return, which pretty much earns her a million gold stars in my book.  Thanks forever!)




I'll leave you with some pictures I took at a large produce stand we visited on our way home.  It's easier to do these things when you can just hop out of the car.  I am slightly obsessed with pictures of pumpkins.  Here you go.

Fall is in full swing.  Hooray!