Ken and I had our appointment for fingerprinting today at the local support office for Immigration.

We’ve been to many Immigration offices and appointments. When Ken came to the United States, he took the “scenic route” to getting his green card — working under a religious worker visa first. There was a difficult and incredibly long transition to get his green card. Five years of paperwork, Immigration errors, appointments, letters, hundreds of dollars, waiting, waiting, and more waiting finally resulted in his green card. And each time we went to one of those Immigration offices, there was a palpable sense that life as we knew it was threatened.

Today was different. Today was about adding to our family without fear of, well, subtracting from our family. The officers were pleasant, efficient, and engaged in amusing chit-chat.

In fact, we had a good time! Now that’s a first!