Thankfully the branch of immigration services that does interviews and oath ceremonies isn't too far from our house. He had his interview on Thursday and was able to take the oath on Friday. I joined him for the oath. I had to be there to take a few pics at least. We usually do not leave the nanny alone with Jagger, this was an exception. In fact we never leave Jagger alone with anyone (last time we were both gone and Jagger was alone with the nanny he coughed really hard and tipped forward and fell off the bed onto the IV pole stand. Arghh. She learned her lesson and now builds a fortress around him if she has to step away for a moment. Of course Sebastien was far away at a mito meeting and I was at the dentist not really in a position to jump up and run home.)
The day of the ceremony we also had a nursing agency visit to do an assessment and intake paperwork. Jagger's routine was thrown out of wack and he was pretty restless and was breathing funny the entire day. Of course this was also the day my phone didn't work and although Sebastien and I were able to sit together while we waited for the ceremony to start we were soon separated as all family members were asked to remain in the back of the room.
I took his phone so I could keep texting with the nanny to get status updates on Jagger. I then communicated via thumbs up or down and head shaking or nodding to Sebastien. Although this place wasn't too far we still took two cars just in case I had to leave.
The ceremony was interesting. A little different than mine. As the MC read aloud (with much difficulty I may add) each country represented during the ceremony, that "former" citizen of that country had to stand up. There were over 40 nationalities present.
They then took the oath, pledge allegiance to the flag, a video played of president Obama welcoming the new citizen to this great nation, another video played showing scenes and landmarks of the US, economic wealth and employment and pictures of other oath ceremonies across this country. The videos were accompanied by patriotic soundtracks such as "America the beautiful" and "God bless America" by Lee Greenwood. The ceremony ended with the star spangled banner of course. Then everyone went to the front and received their certificate of naturalization. This whole thing lasted an hour although we spend 1.5 hours prior waiting for the ceremony to start.
Let's hope he was naturalized in time to vote in this upcoming election.
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