Baby Citizen

For 8 months I was not sure if my child would share my citizenship.  The information was out there, but I was ignorant of some of the details. And then some new citizenship requirements started being discussed.  I wanted to procrastinate and avoid all of the stress until some other moment.  Jeni, rightly, pushed me onward.

I analyzed the application instructions, and I requested some documents I never expected to need again to prove I had spent at least 5 years living in my home country.  We took a family trip to the embassy that was difficult but not impossible to manage.   And this week, my daughter’s passport arrived in the mail. Her second passport in her 8 months of life.

Fragile. I feel extremely and utterly fragile as I try to build my daughter a two or three nation life where she survives to adulthood well cared for but not coddled.  Where she is strong but knows I will protect her.

If I can’t even….. the list goes well beyond ensuring she can live in my birth country.  Life is unpredictable and uncontrollable.  My goal is more and more often just to make good use of and enjoy today.

That is one crucial part of the lifestyle God calls us to - glorify Him today and enjoy the life He gives us.  Maybe I should change the second part of the phrase to appreciate - appreciate the life He gives us.  Because life is never free of pain and no one lives without tragedy.

I am grateful for this day. God has walked alongside of me and cared for my needs.  My baby has permission to reside either here or there.  And our family of three is together.  Living out  the pleasant and the scary, the joy and the pain. We are God’s people, waiting for a home we have not seen.