It's Official: I Am a U.S. Citizen!

Hello Gather friends! I am very excited to announce that I am officially a U.S. Citizen now!

This afternoon my husband took a half day off, picked up my mom, my daughter Kyleigh, and myself from the house, and we all headed to the Oath Ceremony office.

We got there half an hour early. Kyleigh was getting bored towards the end, but she was very well behaved and almost didn't fuss at all.

(My husband's version: "Actually, as soon as you left, Kyleigh started to call, 'Ma ma! Ma ma!' I had to take her to the big window to look at the flowers, but she was still very upset and kept calling for you.")

I was called in to get prepared for the ceremony with all the other applicants. There were 40 of us in this session. The staff had us proofread the naturalization certificate to ensure everything looked correct, and gave us a big stack of reference materials (e.g., the oath, the checklist, the Q & A for new citizens, a pocket constitution, the U.S. passport application, etc.)

My mom, my husband, and Kyleigh waited outside until they were called in separately with all the other friends and family members. I could hear Kyleigh calling "Ma ma, ma ma!" way before I even saw her in the auditorium.

The staff introduced the oath administrator (honestly I cannot remember his name or title), and recommended us for the oath. The administrator accepted the recommendation and asked everyone to stand up and recite the oath. After we sat down, the administrator told us that the process would go very quickly, and if we were to take any pictures, we needed to take them now. Then the staff immediately started calling out our names, and the administrator awarded the naturalization certificate.

I was number 7 today, and the first few people simply picked up their certificates and left. I started to panic because I didn't see my mom with the camera. When they called my name, I walked up and finally saw my mom way in the back. I was posing for the picture with the administrator, but the camera was not flashing. Finally it flashed just after he already pulled his hand away and moved on to the next person.

(My mom's version: "Yeah, I shouldn't have let Kyleigh play with the camera that long. The camera got overheated and wasn't working.")

(My husband's version: "As soon as you guys started reciting the oath, Kyleigh was all over the place. I had to take her all the way to the back of the room to look at the flowers. When your name was called, I pointed at you and told her to look at ma ma. She then saw you and pointed at you and called ma ma. It's so funny that all you guys were sitting still so seriously. If this were an American thing, like a high school graduation, everyone would be taking pictures and waving and doing all kinds of exciting things." I reminded my husband that this was a legal proceeding. But he still seemed to think this was equivalent to a high school graduation.)

After we left the ceremony room, we headed to the voter registration office. I immediately filled out the paper and registered to vote. I was told I would get some kind of voter's card (I think) in the mail in 6 to 8 weeks.

We got out of the building and my mom wanted to take a picture of me in front of the USCIS building, but the security guard had a problem with that. Kyleigh wanted to play at the water fountain in the courtyard, so we stayed around for a while.

So, I came home as a brand new U.S. Citizen! From August 12, 1997 to July 1, 2008, this 10-year-10-month-and-18-day process is now finally over.