USA citizen

On Tuesday we had Aidan's citizenship appointment. All went well and he is officially a USA citizen!! I dare say........he is about 'complete' with paperwork. I don't know if I can even fathom this thought, but I think it's true!! I don't have to double reference him at medical offices, or anything else like that..........his name is all the same and we have proof of his existence and part of our family and....... oh such a good feeling!! Although..........just to completely finalize everything........we are getting a passport for him. But that is such minor paperwork, I will "whip" that out next week......LOL!!!!

So I do have to tell you. It is such a wonderful feeling. But it was such an anti-climactic ending. The pictures are wonderful and will be a fabulous memory. And it's all just such a good event.

But this is how the day REALLY happened..........we chose this day to have the appointment because all the kids had off of school. We debated about having all the kids along, but thought it would be so good to have the memories of family supporting him and pictures of everyone there for the big day. So it was a day off a school, and yet we were up before 7 to get ready. We were on the road by 8:30. It took us just over 3 hours to get to the area. We wanted to drive there, to make sure we knew were it was and would be on time. But then we stopped at McDonalds and got some pop to go with our picnic lunch. ( we had McDonalds the previous 2 days in a row, and 3 days just wasn't going to happen. ) So we ate our picnic and then let the kids run out on some sidewalk to get some energy out. From there we went to the gov't building and had to go through security. Found out no camera's were allowed, so had to leave that behind. At this point, our appointment was in the next 10 minutes, but they had just emplemented a new reciept system. So we had to pay prior to our appointment.............but no one knew how to generate a reciept. And we weren't allowed to procede to the appointment without a reciept. so for the next 1 1/2 hours we sat in the lobby..........waiting.

Are you catching that......waiting.......with 4 kids.

So then we did get in our appointment. The officer was nice, and it went fine. Paul and I had to answer some questions and go over the paperwork, and the kids sat against the wall and continued listening to the iphones and watching movies.

From the appointment, we waited more to get our certificate. So by this time we'd been in the building about 3 hours. And just like that the officer gave us our certificate and we were on our way..

That was it. No fireworks!! No congratulations. no whooping or hollering...........or letting out a scream of excitement. That was it. So ......uneventful. but done!

Somehow Paul has a way of smoozing people and we snatched a picture with the words in the background. I don't think the security guard was too happy with the receptionists...........but we at least have some GREAT pictures to remember what a great milestone this was. So then we went out to eat......On the Border. Chips and Salsa has to be Aidan's favorite food, so it was great! And I can't complain about the margarita's......a great way to celebrate :)