Passing the Test

On Monday, April 23, our sweet daughter-in-law, shown here in some pictures with our son and their children, took the test required of the U.S. government in order to be a citizen. She passed and can expect a call in a couple of months or so to be sworn in as a brand-new U.S. citizen.

She has done well in this country. She is the oldest of 10 children, the rest of whom, with their parents, still live in Vietnam just outside of Ho Che Minh City, the City Formerly Known As Saigon. She came to this country without knowing much English. My son met her and fell in love. He was her supervisor on her first job and he told us all he had to do was show her how to do a job once and she could do it. He knew how smart she is, so when it came time to take the test we all knew she wouldn't have any problem.

Now she speaks and understands English very well. I'm fascinated by how she and my son raise their two daughters, who are being raised in a bilingual household. There're a whole bunch of studies about how children learn two languages simultaneously, and our girls could be a clinic in themselves. I think it helps them with other skills, too, but that's a topic for another day.In our country there's a big debate on illegal immigrants, but no debate on legal immigration. Since all of us but the Native Americans* are immigrants** somewhere along the line someone in our families went through the process of becoming an American. On some level we all understand it.

Anyway, congratulations to our soon-to-be new citizen! We all love her very much and are so proud of her.

Ciao for now.

*There is a great article in the May, 2007 issue of National Geographic on the Jamestown Colony, and how settlers immediately started changing--and damaging--the North American continent after the natives had lived in cooperation with the landscape.

**My earliest American ancestor was in Massachusetts in the 1620s, so if he didn't come over on the Mayflower, he came over on the Juneflower or Julyflower. As far as I'm concerned, the rest of you are just interlopers.