US Citizenship Day!

Today is the day that I have looked forward to since the day we started our immigration journey back in December 2011! My interview at USCIS / Department of Homeland Security was scheduled at 10:15. This field office is a good 100 miles from our house, plus through rush hour traffic... we left at 7 AM and got there just a little early (9:45 but they wouldn't let me check in til exactly 15 mins before the interview). My husband, son, mom and dad came with me. Sitting in the waiting room was torture. So many people around, anxiety was building and it took all my strength to hold it together. The last thing I wanted was to pass out just before the interview lol. I even ate a granola bar to keep my blood sugar up even though I usually never allow myself to eat anything until after 1pm.

Ugh... they ran late so they only called me at saw me at 10:45. The whole interview only took 30 mins. A really nice Immigration Officer J. Bruce interviewed me. He was friendly and we joked around a little.  He went over every page of my application and asked me to answer pretty much all the questions orally to check my answers against the form. He checked my travel dates outside of the US (you have to have been in the US for more than 50% over the last 3 years). Asked to see passport, DL and green card but none of the other docs I brought. I ACED THE US HISTORY / CIVICS TEST!!! It was my personal goal to get all the questions right. You only need 6 out of 10 correct though. After I passed everything he checked the box on the form that says I am approved for citizenship! The last step left was to go through the oath ceremony (you aren't a citizen yet until you go through that ceremony). I was so glad that they had a same day ceremony at 3:30 so I didn't have to drive down to Seattle again.

The ceremony was 3:30 to 5. It was short and sweet and very well put together. There were 74 immigrants from 37 different countries represented today. They told us that they going to call each country's name and when your country is called, you stand up and remain standing until all the countries are called and everyone is standing. At that point, they would lead us in saying the oath together and then when we sit down again we will all be US Citizens. There were only 2 of us from Canada there today.

I had to turn in my green card before the ceremony as I wouldn't be needing it anymore as a citizen. It was bittersweet surrendering this card. I thought back to the long road we have traveled and the many hoops we jumped through along the way. Back then, 4 years ago when we started this immigration process, the idea of Citizenship was so far away but in reality the time has flown and the day has come to trade this cherished piece of plastic in for something much more permanent!

Finally my journey has come to an end! My wonderful husband got me this gorgeous watch - Rolex 31mm Datejust with Jubilee Bracelet - to celebrate this special day. I love it - a timeless watch for a forever meaningful event.

A Downward Spiral?

For once in my life I am torn about losing weight. It used to be a no brainer - lose weight any chance you get - but now I am worried that losing 5 lbs could lead to losing 25 and not being able to stop until I'm right back in the revolving door of hospitalizations. It has been 4 years since I was last hospitalized. People say I am so brave, so strong, such an inspiration for being able to recover. I feel like I have been faking it this whole time. A series of rather exciting events took my focus away from being sick, but now that things have settled down, I'm afraid that the default, the only "way" I know to be is eating disordered.

Recovery timeline:
-A month after I got out of the hospital, I met my future husband. Total coincidence, met at a bank while he was working and I was opening an account. We just clicked. Simple as that. The rest is a whirlwind! I knew I couldn't be actively ED'd if I wanted to have a relationship, so I pushed thoughts of food and weight out of my mind and focused on the relationship.

-6 months later we vacationed in NYC, at which point we knew we never wanted to be apart. Then just 3 months after that we got married (12.1.11) so that we could start the immigration process for him to sponsor me to move to the US from Can. We applied to USCIS immediately for a greencard.

-This whole time, I was already in the middle of a custody battle with my ex. Wanting to move to the US and take my son with me added another layer to the court case. I filed an application to the court to relocate on 2.14.12. I knew my ex and his conniving girlfriend would try to paint me as an unfit mother and use my ED struggles against me, so I had no choice but to "recover" if I wanted any hope of winning the case.

-Due to the Canadian Provincial Court being slow and other setbacks, our case only went before a judge in July 2013. The entire time I maintained a healthy weight. I had to, or else everything would be for nothing. I felt trapped in a body I hated but I guess I stuck with, putting the court case about my body image. It was a really long case. 5 full days in front of a judge, plus written submissions afterwards because we ran out of time. Then waiting, waiting, waiting for a decision.

-Aug 2013 - $30k later and months of waiting, we won the court case and moved to the US! I got a great job, my son who was Grade 1 at the time, settled well into school and extra curriculars. I started making friends in my new community and I was scared to screw it up. PLUS, I didn't have healthcare until 2015, so getting sick would have been a major expense and not a good way to start out after fighting so hard to move in the first place.

Fastforward to the present. Life is generally good. I love our house and our three cats. I've been promoted in my job, in line to become the vice-president of the company (long term plan, not sure how long this will take to come to fruition, but the thought is nice). I am volunteering in my son's extracurriculars, have been the registrar for our soccer association for two years. Life is okay, but I have never been "normal" for this length of time before. Ever since my first hospital stay at 10 years old, a life of doctors, nutritionists, blood work, therapy, is all I have known. Being "normal" and therefore invisible, is starting to eat away at me. This might be clichéed but it's the truth - the ED was (is?) my identity and I feel a degree of loss without it. A hole that needs to be filled. I have always been "too thin". Not always dangerously thin, but THIN was my identity. Every day I feel a stronger pull to get back a little of that identity. Despite all I have gained these last few years, I don't feel brave or courageous for recovering. I feel like it was a mask that is slowly peeling off.

N-400 Citizenship Application

I was so happy to log into online banking today and see that my check for $680 to Department of Homeland Security has cleared! I have never been so thrilled to part with money before. This check was the application fee for my US Citizenship Application! June 30 was my eligibility date for filing and I made sure my application was delivered to USCIS on that very day. This 4th of July is hopefully my last one as an "Alien".

WE WON!!! We are allowed to move!!!

After 6.5 weeks of waiting, we finally got our results today. It was the most nerve wracking wait of my life, but the good news is that WE ARE ALLOWED TO MOVE TO THE USA!!! The court thought the move was in my son's best interests and really, it's not far from our home now (1 hour). Everything went our way. I got my child support arrears, increased child support, the ability to move and even the pickup/dropoff location of our choice! It couldn't have been better. Praise the Lord. It is only through His power that everything swayed so much in our favor. Additionally, there is a new Family Law Act in BC (Mar 18, 2013) and our case was one of the first relocation cases under the Act, so it will be setting a precedent! JP Boyd (Family Law Guru in BC) actually blogged about it and said it was an "Important Decision on Relocation, Interim Guardianship, Needs of the Child Assessments". It is posted on the law websites for all to read and cite in the future. My lawyer was excellent. I couldn't have asked for more. Several thousand dollars later, it is all over. And every penny was worth it! Now the busyness starts - Have to register my son in school, extracurriculars, list my condo in BC, buy a home (right now we are renting a 2BR apartment) in Washington, etc. It's all wonderful things and I'm thrilled to be busy doing them.

US Consulate Immigration Interview

We are in Montréal! Believe it or not, the only place in Canada that they do these Spousal visa interviews is at the US Consulate in Montréal, Québec. We made a vacation out of it since we have all never been here before. It is a beautiful city! On the day of the interview, C went super early and stood outside at 7:30am. Even this early he was the second person in line. I showed up closer to 9am with my son when the doors were about to open. It was scary taking the train alone and rushing to the most important appointment of our lives. I almost got lost, but figured it out just in time. OUR VISAS WERE APPROVED!!! The interview was so easy. They were really nice and the only question they asked was how we met. We are now Greencard Holders!!! It took 9 months from initial application to approval. That is pretty fast, from what I'm told. A few other couples also waiting that day told us that it took them over a year. I'm pretty pleased, since we did it ourselves - no lawyers - and I was really diligent with the paperwork and making sure everything was completed fully to cut down on the back and forth and processing time for incomplete applications. Now we just need to wait for our hearing to see if we are allowed to move down here.

I-130 submitted

On December 16th we submitted the first immigration documents to apply for my spousal visa. $420.00 later… fingers are crossed that we hear back soon. From what we have read online the process takes just under a year. It’s so exciting to think that this time next year I will probably be preparing to move to Washington to be with my beloved. Those immigration forms are crazy complex and involve many many steps and supporting documents. I wonder how anyone with English as a second language manages to navigate the process.