The Newest American!

For those of you curious as to exactly what Mom swore to yesterday...

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

Woah.

Other thoughts I had during the ceremony...

• They said it would start at 9:00am, but it didn't actually start until 10:00am...
• There was a woman from the local chapter of the DAR, who said that english was the offical language of the US...the US doesn't have an official language. I thought that was annoying.
• The presiding district judge was, himself, a naturalized citizen (originally from Mexico). Cool.
• There were 199 people who were naturalized that day, and apparently it happens monthly.
• The two countries that had the most people present: Mexico and Bosnia.
• There were 2 women (they were wearing hajibs's so I assume they were muslim) from Iraq.
• There was one man, originally from Uganda, who was already in the military, and was leaving in 4 months to serve in Iraq.

It was a really interesting experience. And we had a BBQ that night at my house with all kinds of american foods (ie. hamburgers, chips, and potato salad) and american flag cake (complete with sparklers) for desert. Nancy has all the pictures, so she'll have to post them.