Fingerprints

No, this isn't some lovely, hyperspiritual metaphor about seeing God's fingerprints in everything.  It is, in fact, a mini-rant... or better framed, a short story of persistence and perseverance that will pay off tomorrow!!

Those memes reflect my feelings today. lol

I have psoriasis that mainly affects my scalp and my hands.  It gets worse during the winter or in seasons when I'm not eating healthy, which coincided over the holidays.

In order to receive board approval and be certified to begin working my 3000 supervised hours, I have to pass a state and federal background check, both of which require fingerprints.  Here's what that delightful journey has looked like for me:

• Call the Norman Police Department - they're no longer doing fingerprints
• Go to the Norman Post Office on Gray Street - learn it's the wrong location
• Go to the Norman Post Office on 36th - you don't need an appointment and I'm there in normal business hours, but the person who does fingerprints left at noon that day
• Go to the Moore Police Department - purchase 2 cards for them to do fingerprints, wait for 45 minutes and finally decide to come back the next day
• Next day - Moore PD - successful fingerprints - paid the OSBI fee and mailed them off for a background check - huzzah!
• The FBI requires digital fingerprints done through USPS.  Simple for most people.  Not so much for those with cracked/wrinkled fingers from psoriasis.
• I try again at the 36th Street Post Office - 2 employees spend 30-40 minutes trying to get my fingerprints to work, no success (the machine must successfully real all four left fingers at once, then both thumbs, then all four right fingers -- we never once got a quality read of more than 2 fingers at a time).
• Try the OKC Post Office - same machine, same issue - 5 different employees spend a long time, trying lotions, oils, friction, an awkward hand massage, etc.  No luck.
• Try the OKC Sheriff's Department - drive to the address on Google, learn that it's incorrectly listed.
• Call Mom incredibly frustrated/angry with the entire system!
• Email for permission to mail them fingerprint cards rather than the digital scan - they grant that.
• Back to Moore PD for round 2 - their computer cannot pull up the original set, but they agree to do another one (again having to use oil/lotion) - success - mail them in right after Christmas
• FBI takes every bit of 15 business days from the date of receipt to process them and do the background check.
• I get it back on 1-17 and send ALLLLL my required documents to the Oklahoma Board of Behavioral Health for approval.
• Get an email this morning that the OSBI background check was completed on December 16th, which is more than 30 days from the day I submitted my application, so it has to be redone.
• INTERNAL SCREEEEEEAM!!
• Call and email them to make sure they are rigidly sticking to the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law there - indeed, yes, they are.
• Drive to both post offices in Norman during my lunch hour - the first doesn't do fingerprint cards at all, and the second had a long line of people getting passports, so I went back to work.
• Our afternoon cases went off, so I decided to try to knock this out today...
• I called the OKC Sheriff's Office to confirm that they do fingerprints - yes, and they're open until 3:30.
• Google directions and head that way - the directions take me to the same wrong location I'd been to last month.
• Find the correct address and drive another 15 minutes to get there.
• See this sign and want to cry...

• Call again to confirm that they are, in fact, in MWC now (WHY did no one mention that!?) and ask if they can definitely do fingerprints there - yes and yes, as long as I arrive by 3:30!!
• Say "I will persevere - I'm getting this DONE!" out loud in my car...
• Navigation takes me to the worst possible highway exit by a Tinker gate where tons of people are just getting off work - this mess adds over 10 minutes to my drive...
• I then miss the turn because of navigation issues (it told me to drive past it and make a u-turn when I could've easily just turned left into the parking lot)
• Arrive at their very locked door at 3:31, trying every door in the parking lot.
• Laugh out loud and wonder to myself, "What are we doing, God!?  Why is any of this happening???"
• (No clear answers thus far, although Chettles suggests God is setting up a date with the Moore police officer who remembered me when he was summoned to my house in December. lol)
• Take several deep breaths trying to regulate my emotions...
• Call Chet to vent and refocus and fully calm down.
• If there were any way around this, I truly would take it.  It is an actual necessity to become a licensed counselor in Oklahoma, and the OSBI background check that's 32 days old is 100% useless to me now...

So yeah, it's been absurd and ridiculous and expensive and frustrating (all very reminiscent of my RPR journey HERE in 2018)... but I am extra-determined to get this done tomorrow!!  (I need to get on it quickly so that the FBI one does not expire before they approve everything.  I would cry real actual tears if that happened.)

The long-awaited board approval will allow me to pay a fee and take the OLERE test (the Oklahoma jurisprudence exam about state laws regarding counseling)... passing that allows me to await the next board approval for being an LPCC... then I can start my 3000 supervised hours... then pay another fee, I'm sure... THEN become a freaking LPC.  I very sincerely hope and believe it will be worth all the hassle - but this is NOT a smooth or streamlined process, and I hope they fix that in the future!

Okay that's all for today!  

I'm off to Midwest City again now for family dinner - YAY (but for real this time)!! ❤

UPDATE - Got the fingerprints done and hand-delivered them to the OSBI - hopefully they'll complete the background check ASAP and we can move forward!  The lady at the Midwest City Police Station said, "Hey, that's the same last name as my insurance agent." And I said, "Yay, that's my dad!!"  =)