The Making Of An American Citizen

I will be very relieved when Wednesday rolls around. On Monday Brayden and I will be making the 3 hour trek down to Tokyo via bullet train to meet up with Justin since he returns from China that day. We are going to spend the night on Monday, and then on Tuesday Brayden has a BIG BIG day! Tomoko (our translator) and I have been working long and hard for that day to come since Brayden was born. We are headed to the U.S. Embassy to make Brayden an official U.S. Citizen! There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that goes into making that happen. Tomoko and I had to fill out tons of documents, apply and receive the Japanese birth certificate, and then translate that certificate into English as well. Lots of prep work has gone into this day, so hopefully everything works out well! The little guy will even get his picture taken for his passport!

It's not an easy trip if we were to forget a document or make some kind of mistake. You need to book your appointment well in advance at the Embassy. Not to mention a round trip ticket down to Tokyo is around $500 a person! So, we are making sure to cross all of our "T's" and dot all of our "I's" before we go!

A lot of people have asked us if Brayden will have duel citizenship. The answer to that is no. To have duel citizenship one of us would have to be Japanese. So, he will be just a plain ol' American citizen, but he won't be able to run for president since he technically wasn't born in the U.S.A. We limited him right from the get-go!

Tuesday will also mark exactly one month until Brayden and I head back to the United States for around a month visit. This means that the Embassy has only 30 days to make his passport! Talk about stressful, since our ticket back to the States is non-refundable, non-changeable, and very pricey! I will keep my fingers and toes crossed that his passport gets here in time for our journey home.

Our trip to Tokyo is mostly business, however Justin has sniffed out the fact that there is an Outback Steakhouse only a couple of miles from our hotel. It will be nice to get a little taste of home while we are down there. Plus Tokyo is such an enormous and beautiful city that it will be fun to look around a little while we are there.