Ragnar is Officially an American Citizen!

After 25 years in the United States Ragnar finally decided to become a citizen. I had been hoping for many years that he would become a citizen, but he didn't want to give up his German citizenship. I completely understood that, but was worried several times that something would happen in the country that would separate us and I would be left without him. I know it sounds silly, but it was a fear I've always had. A few years ago when they changed some of the laws and he could keep his citizenship to become a duel citizen, he started to consider it, and then since he has been here 20 years it made it even less paperwork and much easier to do. 

Usually they do a big ceremony in a stadium and celebrate. Unfortunately, due to the changes in immigration laws that people are afraid Trump is going to enact they are trying to cycle through as many immigrant applications as possible. They stated to Ragnar that he could only invite a few family and friends and to keep it small because there isn't a lot of room. They assigned him a date that happened to be a Saturday and we went to go cheer him on and see him be sworn in. 

Sadly, when we got there, they informed everyone that only the applicant was allowed to go in and that we could not watch the ceremony! I was SO SAD! After 20 years I had been waiting for this day for years and didn't even get to be a part of it!! His friends and family were so kind and decided to stay outside and wait for him to congratulate him when he came out. It was one of the coldest days we had all year, so we were freezing waiting outside. 

He has great men to support him!

He went in at 11:00 and was done about 12:30. He ended up being sworn in separately on the side as he mentioned it was his old coworkers funeral that day and he needed to be done in a timely manner. He wasn't actually going to be able to make it to the funeral due to soccer games, but didn't mention that to them. 

We were excited for him! 

Since the actual ceremony day ended up being a little bit of a disappointment, we decided to do an open house to celebrate with friends. 

We decorated the house full of American items!!

We tried to do American themed treats as well.

We commemorated his first trip to America in 1988 and him in American today.

We are so exited this day finally came and that all of our family are now officially Americans.