Proud to be an American

May 1st was a special day for our family. I was sworn in as an American Citizen along with 203 others in a Naturalization Ceremony in downtown Memphis. I was honoured by the presence of several friends - thanks Justin, Larry Arick, Natalie and Shawn, and of course my dear husband (without whom this would not have been possible...you know the whole marriage thing...)

Celebrations began on Sunday at the Blands who had plannned a surprise party for me. It was so awesome to be honoured like that. They went all out with red, white and blue decorations from the mailbox and all throughout their home and everyone even wore red, white and blue colours! 'Bland Sundays' have become such a highlight of our time in Memphis. Thanks, friends!






Back to the actual day...it was a really neat ceremony, complete with the Navy band to provide music which stirred the heart! The guest speaker, who was also being naturalized was from Brisbane, Australia, so that was an unexpected treat.

It is certainly a blessing and an honour to be an American Citizen. Of course, it does mean that I can no longer use the line, 'Sir, I'm not an American' on corporate clients who are irritated that I don't know how to spell Roanoke, or know which state it is in... I'll have to come up with some other excuse now.

My naturalization certificate had a little glitch though - it did not get signed by the director of Homeland Security. So I had to make two extra trips to their office to get that taken care of...that is always a treat! It is all taken care of though. Most of our pictures turned out a little dark - here's one though of me at the ceremony.

Oh say can you see....the new American among us....