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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The ultimate authority...resides in the people alone. (James Madison)

Celebration Day! Now we have one more voter, people. My darling husband became a Citizen of the United States of America. YES! HOORAY!!!!!!

It was a very emotional ceremony. Federal Judge Donovan W. Frank is great and a fun speaker, with plenty of reverence for the grand occasion. Habtamu was one of 71 new Americans from 28 different countries. When the court officer read the country list, from Bangladesh to Zimbabwe, tears just jumped out of my eyes. It was fabulous! (no newbies from Finland, and I think there were 4 or 5 Ethiopians)

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, on Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

"It's long been my belief that America is a chosen place, a rich and fertile continent placed by some Divine Providence here between the two great oceans, and only those who really wanted to get here would get here. Only those who most yearned for freedom would make the terrible trek that it took to get here. American has drawn the stoutest hearts from every corner of the world, from every nation of the world. And that was lucky for America, because if it was going to endure and grow and protect its freedoms for 200 years, it was going to need stout hearts." President Ronald Reagan, 1984

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay Habtamu! We are glad that you can finally be a part of this great nation.
I take this citizenship for granted. My great-grandparents also took the oath of citizenship in the late 1800's.....I recently found the papers.

Bette

Leanne said...

Congratulations! What a happy happy day! And I love those photos, they made my eyes wet. :)

Anonymous said...

congratulations to habtamu and his family!
our freedom is a great gift, one we should never take lightly.
~ann b.

Elizabeth Halt said...

oh, I'm all sniffly.

what a happy happy day.

congratulations! we're lucky to have him as a citizen. :)

Jan said...

Congrats to Habtamu!
Looking at this makes me think about being an American and what it means to participate in be a citizen. Thanks for the photos.

Jen H. said...

Hooray! We blessed to live in a great nation and to share it with you!

Anonymous said...

The pictures brought tears to my eyes. Congratulations! Let us never take this country or our freedom for granted!

Becca said...

Wow! What a special day for your husband and your family!!

Jen H. said...

It looks like I need to learn how to type English properly! sorry about the above babbled comment!

Anonymous said...

Congrats to the both of you! We are happy to have you as our fellow citizen! Nancy

Anonymous said...

I got goosebumps reading this post. Congratulations to Habtamu! I'm so happy for all of you! What an amazing thing to celebrate.

We have so much to be thankful for living in this country. This was a lovely reminder not to take that for granted. Loved the pictures.