Citizenship

He did it! HE DID IT! We have almost jumped through every hoop and filled out every form necessary for E to become a citizen. He passed his test. Hurray!

Preparing for the interview was by far the worst part. He has been studying for a couple of months at least. We also had to take in the following documents:

• his green card
• his ID/drivers license
  
• his passport
• my birth certificate
• our marriage certificate
• proof of residence and our union
• birth certificates of all our children
• a copy of our taxes from the last three years.

We took everything in and they only looked at the first two.

Getting ready in the morning, he decided to wear a suit. He said that if they deported him at least he would arrive in Honduras in something nice. All of these jokes about getting deported were kind of getting to me. One would like to think they wouldn't deport him, or would they. They can actually do anything they like. So it was funny, but not really.

We took the whole family and I think our kids served their purpose. The interviewer saw them and maybe he recognized how much they needed their dad.

They quizzed E on his name, my name, our children's names and he did well. Then they had him read sentences and write sentences to prove that he speaks English. Last but not least they asked him 10 questions about our history/government.

1. What do the stripes on the flag represent? (The first 13 states.)
   
2. Who was the first president of the United States? (George Washington.)
   
3. Who elects the President of the United States? (The electoral college.)
4. How many Senators are there in Congress? (100, two from each state.)
5. Who is the head of the Executive Branch of the U. S. Government? (The President.)
6. What were the original 13 states? (Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Georgia.)
7. Who said, "Give me liberty or give me death"? (Patrick Henry.)
   
8. What holiday was celebrated for the first time by American colonists? (Thanksgiving.)
9. Who is the Commander-in-Chief of the United States military? (The President.)
10. How many times may a Senator or Congressman be re-elected? (There is no limit.)

All of the questions he answered appropriately and the guy told him he passed. Then he had to sign a paper saying that he would go to war for the U.S. if he was called up. And that was it. When he walked out he just said, "Piece of cake." All that is left is the oath ceremony. They said they will send us a letter three weeks before the ceremony, so who knows when that will be. Not within the next three weeks at least. I think I need to throw a party when it is all done. You are all invited!

We celebrated by eating at Chuck-a-Rama and going to the zoo. We do love the zoo.