Welcome to America 1

Well, within six hours I will have lost my Scottish accent and I’ll be speaking Americanese. My sermons will lose half their power and never again will I blush to hear, “Oh, I looooooooove your accent!”

I’m still not quite sure how the mechanics of this work. Someone said it’s an injection you receive during the pledge of allegiance. Another said, “You have to swallow a pill.” I’m going to try and avoid both because a colleague of mine warned me long ago, “David, no one would ever listen to you if you didn’t speak with a Scottish accent.” He was half-joking.

Yes, today, at 1pm in the Gerald R. Ford Museum, my family and I become American citizens. Multiple thoughts and feelings fill my mind and heart, which I’ll try to sort through and articulate tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to share a photo of a lovely gift we received last week from the first grade students at East Grand Rapids Lakeside Elementary.

One of our friends in our congregation, Julie Laroque, works there and helped each of the children prepare a card to welcome us to America. We were deeply touched by all the effort they put into it; especially how each one wrote in their card what they loved about America. Thank you, Lakeside, you made us feel so welcome!

Julie and her family also provided us all with American socks for the ceremony (Viewer discretion advised, especially for the Brits). Still trying to persuade Joni and Amy to wear them today with their dresses. On top of the American flag another family kindly gifted us, we’re just about fully kitted out.

And now I’m just going to have a wee cry:

  • http://www.boardwalkchapel.org Elizabeth

    Welcome, congratulations, and thank you for all the Kingdom work you have done and are continuing to do in the USA! Don’t worry about losing the accent; there is no one generic Americanese language, and even if there was, we would all figure out how to individualize it anyway… :) Lord bless you and your family!

    • David Murray

      Thank you for your good wishes Elizabeth.

  • jerry goodwin

    Congratulations!

    If I am not mistaken your son is in the USMC. As a veteran and the dad of 2 veterans, father-in-law of a veteran, son, brother, brother-in-law, uncle & cousin of U.S. veterans, thanks to your son for his service to our country.

    Just be advised there is a distinct difference in what many consider Americanese and a true Southern Accent. You need to come south of the Mason Dixon line in order to learn to speak proper Americanese.

    jerry goodwin

    • David Murray

      Thank you Jerry, Yes, Allan is in the USMC. I will pass on your good wishes. Thank you also for your service.