October 10th, 2009

Two weeks ago or so I had the honor of seeing what not many Americans get to see – a brand new American. Not someone who born into our little club but somebody who moved here from afar and made the choice as an adult that she wanted to become an American. Her name is Kathi Tucker.

Kathi has lived in America since she was a little girl. Not many knew that she wasn’t ‘one of us…’ She had dual citizenship – she was a citizen of Great Britain and South Africa. The latter of the two led my then young daughters to ask why Kathi isn’t black…

I honestly think every American should have the opportunity to witness the process people go through to become an American by choice, rather than birth. It gives you a whole new perspective and respect for those that choose to become a citizen of the greatest nation on earth (admittedly biased opinion…). It’s not a sudden process, it takes years. In Kathi’s case she was here on pretty much a lifelong visa so it wasn’t something she had to do – she could’ve stayed here just fine as she was. Now imagine yourself – you decide you want to become a citizen of a country like the USA – would you have the patience to wait years? To have the Department of Homeland Security monitor your whereabouts, fingerprint you, renew your ‘permit’ to be here, then go through an interview process as well as a test to become a citizen? Do you think you’d pass? I had to look up the answers to some of the questions Kathi had to know about our current government as well as our history.

So September 23rd I stood in line behind the metal detector with Kathi and 40 other immigrants and their families, all being screened one last time before we entered the room – finally! – and waited. I like to tell people now after that wait that I know what it was like to be at Ellis Island, I’m sure it was quite similar. I mean they made me turn my iPhone off and everything!

From there you wait for the head of the local INS office to come in. Families sit along the wall, waiting, nervously talking, there’s a quiet excitement in the air. Finally it starts – the director recognized that in the 40 people seated before us over 22 countries from around the world were represented! I sat in a room that was a literal melting pot. There was a speech about the process, about becoming an American, about what they were about to do. The oath of allegiance they take to swear their loyalty to the United States of America left NO gray area. Part of the oath is a complete renouncing of your citizenship to your former nationality: “to renounce and abjure absolutely and entirely all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which the applicant was before a subject or citizen.” Powerful words huh? We sang the Star Spangled Banner. We all said the Pledge of Allegiance. They called the new citizens up one by one and gave them the certificate that from that moment forward gave them all the rights and responsibilities we born-to-the-club Americans take for granted. Huge smiles as each person picked up their certificate and shook the director’s hand. Proud families snapping pictures. They played a video of President Obama welcoming them to their new country and new citizenship. They played a video set to Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” that showed people from coast to coast. And proud families and friends left with the 40 newest Americans in the country. It was really cool!

So if you’re so inclined, perhaps you’d like to welcome one of America’s newest citizens – Kathi Tucker. I’m of course helping her learn the language and how to drive on the right side of the road. She’s already taken to complaining as we Americans love to do, her first complaint as an American citizen was that she was hungry so we set out for her to experience American cuisine… I’m slowly getting used to being married to an American. I like to tell people I married her so I could stay in this country but apparently I was going to be able to anyway so that gesture was wasted…

Here’s some photos of pre-American Kathi, becoming-American Kathi and post-becoming an American Kathi Tucker.

Deb Sprague must’ve sent it this way – this morning we woke up to snow!

Halo the collie sees snow for the first time in her life at Raindance Farms