I am officially a U.S. citizen!!! I have been in the US for 25 years now so I guess it is about time! The process to become a citizen was quite something. I was unable to locate my marriage certificate which slowed the process down a bit. Long story short, we almost had to hire a lawyer (they suggested getting married again), CA doesn't have any record of it, I had my temple certificate and thankfully the INS offices accepted that. The ceremony was on Friday, September 28th. It was held outside in Fort Scott at a historical Civil War site. They had doughnuts and coffee in the morning. There were about 80 of us getting sworn in. The local band and choir were also there and performed some musical numbers. It was overcast and it sprinkled a little bit. My hair got quite frizzy due to the humidity! The man to my left was from Vietnam and had been in the US for about 5 years. I can't remember where the woman to my right was from. They had each of us stand and say where we were from originally and then they said what we did for a living. It was interesting to hear where we all came from. I wondered what their stories were. How did they come to the U.S? I saw how happy and proud everybody looked. I thought about how some people take their citizenship for granted. Craig was there and I wish we had brought the kids. After the ceremony they had lunch for us. In talking with Yvonne, it sounded like it was much more intimate than hers. She became a citizen in CA, so imagine those ceremonies are pretty big. I think she said there were about 1000 people! I was really excited leading up to the ceremony but what I was not expecting was to get emotional. I thought about how long I'd been here; longer than I lived in Mexico. I thought about how I felt more American than Mexican. I thought about how proud I've been to be an American. Of course I thought about my parents. I kind of felt like I was betraying them and my Mexican culture by becoming a citizen. But I have since felt like this was the right thing to do. I should have done it long ago. I have a feeling my parents approve and I hope they are proud. So this means that I can now vote!!! I just got my voter registration card in the mail today so I'm all set to go :) GO MITT!!!!
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That's all for now.
