Bruno is a U.S. CITIZEN! PART TWO

So, here I am now (9/17) adding to this post with the details about today!  Our phones have been buzzing off the hook, so I am going to try and finish this as fast as I can.  We just got home from Salt Lake City. The swearing in ceremony took place at Rose Wagner Theater. We had no idea what to expect when we got there.  By the time we made it this morning, around 9 am, there was already a ton of people in line waiting to get in. The district judge said 170 people swore in today from 39 countries, so it was a pretty full house!  The ceremony itself was pretty simple. A local high school choir sang a few songs, a few students gave speeches about the constitution, and there were more remarks by a few other adults about voting and what it means to be a citizen.  Then, all the people swearing in today stood up and took the oath. After that, the district judge spoke and I LOVED what he said. My opinion of him may be biased because he threw in a few Harry Potter references throughout the ceremony. :D One thing he said was that he had visited a classroom once and he asked the students to name all the Hogwarts houses.  He then asked them to name the 3 branches of government. He said that more people could name the Hogwarts houses than the branches of government. It’s totally okay to know pop culture references, but you should have the equivalent amount of knowledge about your government, if not more!

One thing that was kind of funny, but actually sad when you think about it… Close to the end of the ceremony, they announced that they had a message to show from President Trump.  You could hear the groans! The funny thing is, they tried about 5 times, but the video clip never worked! It would have been interesting to hear what he would have said, but we overheard several people say it was a blessing in disguise that we did not.  We have prayed for Trump’s heart to be softened so that he would be able to better understand how to help these people who just want to be treated as fairly as everyone else. His administration is making this whole process a lot harder. Just this month, a new law passed that will make things way more stressful.  We are SO lucky that we were able to get this all done when we did and we pray daily for the people who are currently still in this mess.

Anyway, at the very end, they gave the newly sworn in citizens a chance to speak.  The passed a microphone around and let a few people share their stories. It was so humbling and neat to hear of stories similar to Bruno’s and to hear stories that were completely different!  But everyone had the same intentions and love for our country. I realized how many blessings I have been taking for granted! Bruno, of course, did speak and he spoke a lot about his students and his history teaching experience.  He got so many compliments and much praise after the ceremony. One new citizen was even a first grade teacher! I just wanted to give her a big hug! Anyway, after the district judge heard Bruno’s story, he announced that he wanted Bruno to hang around afterwards so that he could get his contact info. He said he wanted to come speak in Bruno’s classes!  When we met with his secretary afterwards, she said she was really shocked that he was willing to do that because he doesn’t normally do those sorts of things. Bruno also got contact info. from a few other people who wanted to come present to his class.

We noticed that Fox 13 news was in the room during the ceremony, but didn’t think too much of it.  As we were walking out to leave, Bruno was asked to do an interview! He might be on TV tonight!! How cool would that be?! We’ll have to watch.  Anyway, Bruno’s mom got to be there today and I’m so glad she could! I am forever indebted to her for sacrificing herself all those years ago and for taking a HUGE risk in hopes of providing Bruno (and eventually his sister) a better life.  She has been nothing short of successful in how she raised him.

It is insane to think that this day has come and will soon be gone like every other day.  So much TIME, energy, MONEY, stress, PRAYER, fasting, & faith has been put towards this dream.  And the thing is, even though Bruno has FINALLY made it to the finish line, we are not done. We will help carry the burdens of others’ who are going through this process.  We will advocate for a better immigration system. This will always be an issue that is near and dear to our hearts. We have friends who are treading through these high waters right now.  They know who they are and I want them to know that we are praying for them, by name, every. single. day. There is a light at the end of the tunnel! If anyone is going through this and needs to talk to someone who has been there -- please reach out!  

It’s funny, because Bruno and I were talking about how not much is actually going to change now that he’s a citizen.  Obviously, he’ll gain more rights and freedoms, (he already registered to vote), but life will still go on as is. He’ll still be the amazing father and husband that he is.  He’ll still be teaching history the same way that he was, and he’ll still serve in his church callings and in his community in the best way that he always has.

Anyway, I’m so grateful for all the love and support we’ve had throughout this entire process.  Our families and friends have always been huge blessings. Most importantly, we are grateful for Heavenly Father’s plan and we know this was something we needed to go through.  I thank him every day for providing a way for Bruno to get to me. I would not be living the life I’ve always dreamed of without him. If Bruno and I can get through the stress this caused, we can get through anything.  I am so proud of us for finally making it to the top.

I’m also grateful for our lawyer.  While he was not cheap, he has been extremely crucial in this process.  I’m glad there are people out there, like him, who want to help and are making a huge difference in the lives of immigrants.

Last, but not least, I’m grateful that I have the privilege of being a citizen in this amazing country.  It was something I took for granted until I met Bruno. We sing the first and last verses of the National Anthem as a school every Friday.  Last Friday, I couldn’t even make it through without crying -- knowing what was finally happening today. It’s been a crazy roller coaster, to say the least!  If you’ve read this far -- thank you, from the bottom of our hearts! We’ve been so anxious and excited to share our story!

             

Bruno is a U.S. CITIZEN!! PART ONE

BRUNO IS FINALLY A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!! Wow!  I’ve been dreaming about this day for almost 6 years now! And Bruno has been thinking about it for over two decades!  We’ve been so excited to share our story (well, it’s mostly Bruno’s), and now that we finally can, I don’t even know where to begin!

I guess I’ll start from the very beginning!  I’m going to keep this part brief because it’s super personal to his family.  Bruno was born in Bolivia. His parents divorced when he was a toddler and his father decided he didn’t want anything to do with him.  His mom, with a student visa, moved to the states when Bruno was three. She went to school and graduated from BYU. Bruno’s grandma, who was also divorced, actually came to Utah first and also graduated from BYU.  Now, I’m not going to debate this, but I believe that everyone (with a few exceptions) deserves a chance to be here. I still would have loved Bruno and his family just as much if I had found out that they had “jumped the border.”  Long story short, everything was fine until 9/11. After that, it became much harder for his family to stay legally. But, by that point, they had already established themselves here, learned a completely new language, had multiple jobs, Bruno was in a good education system, etc… Anyway, because things got complicated after 9/11, Bruno was never able to renew his visa.  So, after it expired, he then became known as an “illegal alien.” This is something that has haunted him throughout his life. It wasn’t until a couple years into our marriage that this burden was somewhat lifted.

Fast forward 11 years - to our second date.  Bruno told me he had a secret that he needed to be upfront about.  With my dating history, I remember thinking, “Great, here we go…” I don’t know what I was expecting to come out of his mouth, but I definitely didn’t expect it to be about his legal status.  That night, we spent a great deal of time discussing what it would mean for us as we continued to date and if we were to get married, start a family, etc… Honestly, hearing his family’s story… how they sacrificed EVERYTHING to come here, and hearing how hard they worked to make ends meet and how going through all the trials they had endured up to that point was still better than life in Bolivia… it just made me love him more.  NOTHING was ever just handed to Bruno. When I eventually met his mom, grandma, & sister, I remember thinking that they were the most humble people I had ever talked to. Of course I wanted to raise my kids with them around! Haha!

Obviously, Bruno and I got engaged and married less than a year later.  By that point, we had told only some of my family and maybe a few friends.  It was still a very personal trial and burden for Bruno to carry. He did not marry me for a green card, or else he would have left 3 years ago. ;) Anyway, with me as his sponsor, we were able to start the immigration process shortly after we were officially married.  We knew it would be a long road to citizenship. (I’m crying as I write this because I remember our lawyer warning us about the timing of everything and I remember thinking that this day would never come.)

The first step was his work permit.  In the past, he had always been able to work without one.  He has a social security number and so he never had trouble getting a job.  (However, because of E-Verify, nowadays, it would have been a problem.) But, he paid taxes and worked like any other citizen.  Obtaining a work permit didn’t take long at all -- probably a couple months at the most.

The next step was his temporary green card.  It was called a “conditional marriage” green card.  Meaning, he would be given a green card after we could prove that we were legitimately married.  I remember this interview being one of the most nerve wracking things I had ever done. Bruno probably felt it even more.  We HAD to get it right the first time or it would have turned into a nightmare. Our lawyer gave us a lot of good advice about what to bring.  One thing he suggested was to bring photos of us traveling together and photos of me with his family and vice versa. And, of course, wedding photos, mementos, etc…  I remember printing pictures of me with Bruno’s mom and sister when we went to San Diego and also pictures of Bruno with my dad in Gettysburg. We brought a picture of all our guests that attended our wedding ceremony.  Not to mention, ALL the paperwork under the sun. Our interview went pretty well, but I remember we were both sweating bullets after it was done and they put us in the waiting room and said they’d tell us whether we passed or failed a few minutes later.  I was SO glad that our lawyer was there to support us that day and that he advocated for us. It was nice to talk to someone who felt confident that we had done everything right. HOWEVER, I almost screwed us up. I had kept my PA driver’s license, which still had my maiden name.  I was selfish in wanting to keep my PA status as long as I could. They questioned us about that and I promised that I would change it the following week. And I did. Anyway, we passed! I think this was the hardest step in the process - at least for me.

A year after that, he was able to apply to have the conditions of the green card removed, so that it would just become an official ten year green card.  We had to send in more proof that we were still married. We sent them bills, bank statements, Sammy’s birth certificate, pictures, a rental contract with Bruno’s grandma, etc…  Luckily, we didn’t have any issues getting the new card, but we certainly stressed and questioned if it would be enough. (By the way -- they took Bruno’s green card and his work permit today.  He was so sad, but we took pictures of them!)

At this point, it just became a LONG waiting game.  We couldn’t start the road to citizenship until after Bruno had his official green card for two years.  Bruno literally sent in his paperwork as soon as he could to the day. Our poor lawyer was probably annoyed with all the, “is it time yet?” e-mails we sent.  Shortly after we submitted his application, he got a letter saying he needed to be fingerprinted, with a specific time and day attached.

By the way, nothing about this process is convenient.  At least, that has always been our luck. You have to do things on their time schedule, otherwise the whole process becomes significantly longer.  Bruno’s fingerprints were scheduled to take place in June, while we were planning to be in PA to celebrate Sammy’s first birthday. Some people may remember when Bruno had “something come up” and we had to reschedule his flight to PA.  (It was the first time Bruno & I had been apart for more than, like, 12 hours since we were married.) Luckily, the fingerprinting was only two or three days later, or something, and we were able to book a flight literally right after his appointment.  He had to rush like a madman to get from fingerprinting to the airport. Haha Thankfully, he made it.

After fingerprinting, it became another very long waiting game.  We actually weren’t expecting to hear anything about his citizenship test until around February of next year.  So, the fact that we got it a lot sooner is a HUGE blessing. We got the letter in July, (so just over a year later), stating that he would take his test & have his interview in August… On Bruno’s FIRST day of teacher training.  Remember how I said that nothing in this process has been convenient? HA! What are the odds? (We do count our blessings, though, -- at least it wasn’t on the first day of school for the students.)

SO, Bruno then had to explain to his boss what was going on and why he wouldn’t be able to make it to the first day on the new job.  Thankfully, his boss was supportive and understanding. How ironic is it that the TWO things Bruno has been waiting over FIVE years for -- to get citizenship & to start teaching -- BOTH happen on the same day at the same time?!  Even though citizenship wasn’t “official” on that day, it was still pretty crazy and that’s why I had to post about it. I honestly didn’t think we’d have so many people wondering what that second milestone was! We have the best of friends.  Anyway, I was hoping Bruno would let me tell the world on that day, but he wanted to wait until we were COMPLETELY done with this process. I don’t blame him.

Anyway, this became the fun part.  I had a lot of fun quizzing Bruno on the 100 questions they might ask you during the test.  They would ask 10 questions and you had to get at least 6 right. (They would stop you as soon as you answered 6 correctly.)  There were a couple that Bruno, surprisingly, didn’t know and a LOT that I felt guilty not knowing! When he took his test, he remembers answering the first 6 right.  But, he says it was all a blur, so he doesn’t remember any of the specific questions. (He told me which ones they were on that day, but we don’t remember now.) He does remember the sentence they had him write, which was, “The president lives in the white house.”  One thing that was kind of annoying is that they have a whole list of paperwork you’re supposed to bring to the interview. We were scrambling as we double and triple checked that he had everything. And then, they didn’t even ask for a SINGLE thing, except the letter that was sent to us about the interview!  So annoying, but at least there weren’t any issues. Bruno says he can’t really describe the feeling he felt as he left that building. He passed and now this big dream was REALLY going to come true!!

He was told that he would get his swearing in date about 4-6 weeks after the interview and then his swearing in would be 4-6 weeks after that.  His interview was on August 16th and we received the next letter in the mail last Monday, September 10th, saying that his swearing in would be just a week later -- today, the 17th!  Everything happened in just a month!! We weren’t expecting this to happen until October, so it was really exciting! Again, it’s not the most convenient since we had to take a day off of work for it, but I think we deserve a day after this crazy journey. ;)

Sammy is Two!

I just realized that it’s been almost a year since I’ve updated our blog. Opps!  I figured I’d do a post highlighting Sammy’s birthday and share some other recent life events.

It’s crazy to me that Sammy’s second birthday has already come and gone!  Bruno and I were just talking yesterday about what his life will be like as a teenager and we both agreed that those years really don’t seem that far off.  He’s still at an age where he *usually* listens and he still wants to please and be a “good boy.” (Nevermind the fact that today hasn’t been one of those days.) I know it won’t be long until he realizes his independence, so I’m trying to soak up these moments now!  

Sammy still remembers his birthday party and he asks to go back to the clubhouse (where the party was held) often.  He’ll say things like, “Birthday party, Batman!” He is Batman’s biggest fan right now, aka, his father's child. Ha!  Anyway, we are grateful for everyone that came and celebrated with us! We kept this party much simpler than last year and I’m so glad we did because party planning stresses me out!

I know I already posted about this cake, but it looked and tasted so amazing that I had to give my coworker, Jill Gurney, another shout out!  She did an awesome job!

I’m glad we were able to plan his party around my family’s schedule!  It was great having them out here for it. We were just missing my dad who wasn’t able to come out this time. I’m hoping he’ll make a trip soon, though!

Sammy doesn’t even know how lucky he is to already have so many friends.  It was great to see several at once! He is still super shy, so we are really working on getting him to interact more with all of them.

We had to continue the piñata tradition, and this time, Bruno didn’t want to go cheap.  We got the good stuff!

I loved having all of the guests sign a book for him last year, so we found a Batman book to serve the same purpose.  This is now one of Sammy’s favorite books and we often read it a couple times in a row.

The fact that Sammy still remembers this day just reassures me that I can count it as a success!

In other news, we are anxious/nervous/excited about the upcoming school year.  It will be a whole new ball game now that Bruno will be working full time and we’ll both be equally busy.  I’m curious to see how we manage to balance life as full time teachers and full time parents. Hopefully, we’ll get into a new grove sooner rather than later. :)

The first month of our summer was spent packing/moving/unpacking.  We didn’t move very far, but it seemed like a never ending process.  We moved back into the complex we lived in right after we got married.  We lived here for two years before moving to Bruno’s grandma’s basement apartment.  We are now living in a condo and we are LOVING the extra space. Sammy is especially loving the outdoor patio and the room to run around.  We have the main floor and then we also have a basement that we just turned into a big family room. We spend the majority of our time downstairs and I have a feeling it will become known as Bruno’s man cave once football season starts. Ha!  We just got a super good deal on Direct TV, which includes the NFL package.

Anyway, we plan to live in this condo for the next little while.  We are hoping to save as much as we can so that, by some miracle, we can buy a house somewhere in the area.  It’s seems impossible and far away now, but our goal is to settle somewhere close. We absolutely love living by Bruno’s family and we couldn’t ask to live any closer to our schools.  Plus, having Target only be walking distance away from me for the past five years has definitely spoiled me! If you would have told me in high school that I’d want to settle in Utah, I would have NEVER believed you.  It’s just so funny to see how things change.

Bruno and I will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary next week!  We’ve never done much to celebrate anniversaries, so I’m really excited about our little staycation we planned.  We’ll be staying at the Anniversary Inn up in Salt Lake for a couple days. We’ll be getting couples massages, going shopping, eating yummy food, and just enjoying one last weekend before life gets super busy again.  I’ll be going back to work the following week after that. Crazy, I know!

To end, I thought it would be fun to share some of Sammy's stats and favorite things at 2 years...

Height - 35"

Weight - 29.4 lbs.

Favorite Foods - Pasta, rice, chicken, chocolate milk

Favorite Toys - His tool bench & 4-wheeler

Favorite Songs - Once There was a Snowman & Popcorn Popping

Favorite Activities - Swimming & playing at the park (anything outdoors, really)

Favorite Books - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Batman Goes to Bed

Hopefully, I’ll have more exciting things to share before another year goes by!