An American is Born

So at 6 am today, after a night of little-no sleep, Mike woke me up to drive to a busy, smoky polluted street where people turn down both ways on a one way street (like most streets here) to get to the US Consulate Office. I would be lying if I said that the sight of the American flag didn't make me take a sigh of relief. I felt, for a brief moment, that I was home.

We took our lovebug and our hopes there with our fingers crossed that, unlike most governmental visits, this one would only take one stop to secure her documents (birth certificate, passport, etc.). Luckily, that's how it went. For the first time in my WHOLE life, it was easy to deal with a government office. It took a few hours but there was no running around, no "see that person" who sends you to see "this person" who send you back to the first person you saw. There was no one telling me that I had to do ABC while the next person told me that ABC was not necessary, but 123 was. Everyone was on the same page. How many times could you say that when dealing with a government agency? It even worked out that the passport pictures we brought (where she looked like an old man elf) were too close and they had a photographer to take new ones. For 200 pesos ($5.00) our daughter now has a presentable passport photo.

In three weeks, we should have Rafaella's first passport. Our daughter is almost a full on American citizen (still needs a SSN). And although, it didn't make a difference to me before that she was being born on foreign grounds, I must say that I am happy that she is in the process of being an American. I love the world and can't wait to see more of it, but being an American definitely has its advantages.