Our Newest Citizens
© Linda Mazar
I am departing from my topic today a bit to talk about the wonderful experience my family has gone through recently. To give you a bit of background, former President Clinton signed a bill into law that automatically grants US citizenship to internationally adopted children who meet certain requirements. This law took affect on Feb. 27, 2001.This law is very important as it means that foreign children adopted by American citizens are now granted citizenship in the same way that biological children born to American citizens outside the United States are. No longer are adopted children treated differently on this issue. They are finally given the rights that were due to them as children of citizens of the United States. These children legally belong to their parents, so there never should have been an issue about applying for citizenship in this country. They should be treated the same as biological children. There should be no distinction or difference.
Many adoptive families, including mine, have worked hard to get this legislation passed and we were so relieved when it was finally signed into law. Now that the required number of days has passed, it is now in affect and an estimated 75,000 foreign born adopted children became citizens on Feb. 27th. My 2 year-old daughter was one of those children and here begins my story.
I love to buy clothes for my daughter. I knew her citizenship would be granted soon and I decided she needed a special outfit for the occasion. I found the perfect navy and white sailor dress. It was exactly what I imagined a child should wear when she become a US citizen, so I bought it. I then began to realize that she would become a citizen automatically, so there was no event - no big occasion for her to wear this dress. This was a problem.
Not allowing that to stop me, I contacted some friends who had also adopted children and asked if they wanted to meet to make a ceremony for our children on the day they would be granted citizenship. The next thing I knew, one father had contacted his state representative and they had reserved the rotunda of our state capital building for a ceremony. From that point, we planned a major International Adoption Citizenship Day event for our state.
State Representative Kathy Tingelstad and her staff (with a little help from three families), put together a wonderful program including a proclamation of International Adoption Citizenship Day from our governor, an address from the Secretary of State, and the citizenship vows/address from the top federal judge in our state. It was a fabulous ceremony! In addition there were other events for attending families (more than 600 people attended) and a reception with cake and everything.
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