Oath Ceremony

On Thursday, August 2nd my mom and I took our oath to become United States citizens! The ceremony was so cool. There were people from 33 (if I remember correctly) different countries and between 90-100 people were there to become naturalized. I'm pretty certain we were the only white people.

Here is the mini statue of liberty in the ceremony room, taken by my dad behind us in the "family" section.

The ceremony began with singing the national anthem, followed by the introduction of the candidates. When they announced each country in the room, you were supposed to stand up and be acknowledged. I think the list they had was wrong because people weren't standing when countries were called, and they missed at least 7 countries that people shouted out at the end. Apparently, that didn't happen at Dad's ceremony. Oh well, everyone was eventually recognized.

Mom and I were the only Brits

After we all stood up, we said the Oath of allegiance, reliquishing any loyalty to another country. A video of President Obama was played after the oath to welcome us as citizens, which I thought was pretty cool. Then they played "God Bless America" which makes both my mom and I tear up. I was trying not to look at her so I wouldn't start to bawl. This was followed by the pledge of allegiance and distribution of our certificates!

After the ceremony was over we rushed to the statue for pictures to beat the rush of people. 

Me! I'm a citizen!

Mom and I. I'm glad we got to do this together.

S and mini S both came, which was awesome.

Hook 'Em Horns, baby! Gotta represent.

I didn't even notice this on the wall until the end.

After pictures I went to my parents house to fill out my voter registration card and passport application then my dad took me to Southlake Town Hall to submit and pay for my passport. I can't wait for that to get here!! It was almost Noon at this point, and I didn't want to use any more vacation time so I high tailed it down 635 to work!

I had a nice suprise when I got there - my coworkers were super sweet and decorated my cube! I took down the bottom couple streamers, but I still have to duck to get into my cube!

They also put a sign in the center table that divides our pod and ordered Tiff's Treats delicious cookies for a mini celebration. 

I'm going to hang this up in my cube next week and leave it there forever, lol! I don't think everyone really understands how much this means to me and my family. We've been here 13 years and it hasn't been the easiest, or cheapest, process. So many people take living here for granted. A bonus for me is that the UK will always recognize me as a British citizen, so I have dual citizenship and will have two passports, woo!!

'Merica.