When a child is born outside of the US and has a parent who is an American citizen, depending on the country they are born in they can apply and have dual citizenship. Not every country has this option, but Sweden does! In order for our kids to have dual citizenship we need to fill out TONS of papers, take a picture for their passport, and travel to the nearest American Embassy. We could have gone to Stockholm, but we decided to go to Oslo instead since it is a bit closer for us. Plus Joel served his LDS mission there (about 9 years ago!!!), and I have been dying to go to Norway and have him show me around. It was such a successful trip and we had so much fun together with little William. I can't explain how nice it was to be away from home to not have any pressure to pack and get ready for our big move!
We left Emma with Joel's parents.. we figured it would be easier on all of us ;) I didn't know how long our appointment would take to get William's passport, report his birth, and his SSN... so we decided it would probably be best to leave Emma to party with farmor and farfar! I'm sure she had a blast and a half without us, she loves spending time at their home! And it comforts me to know that she is well taken care of! ;)
We have some friends who let us stay in their house the night before our appointment! Even though they weren't there, they still let us stay in their home! I'm so grateful we could, so we didn't have to leave Gothenburg and wake up super early for our appointment at the embassy.
Here are a few pictures from our (and kind of a small getaway!) trip to Norway!
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Leaving the night before and the sunset was amazzzzing
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Snapchatting about this Solo drink. Soooo good.
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I loved this small little car for some reason!!
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Our appointment ended up taking an hour and a half. The American Embassy building had this fence that felt like we were kinda going into a prison. They had legit security that felt like an airport security check. We couldn't take the stroller or any bags inside, or our phones. It felt pretty intense!! I didn't mind as long as I could nurse little William ;)
While Joel was working on our papers and I was sitting with William, a lady came over and just started talking to me. I was SO thrown off.. because no one does that in Sweden! It took me a couple seconds to come out of the shock that someone was talking to me. Talking with her made me so excited to talk with outgoing Americans when we move back to the states in a few weeks and to feel comfortable speaking English again! She made my whole day, just by sitting and talking with me during this process of getting William's dual citizenship, because she was there doing the same for her 6 month old.
After our appointment Joel showed me a little bit around Oslo. I was like, "Hey Joel! That is such a cool looking building!" and he said, "Uhhhh Mollie. That's because it is the castle..." ;) The castle was around the corner from the American embassy building, so that's where we walked first!! So cool to see the guards in front.
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The sun was SO warm.
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The institute building (mainly for young single adults) where Joel spent a lot of time
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We ate kebab where Joel use to eat ALL the time! Sometimes twice a day!! It is right around the corner from the institute building.
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The food was SO good. It's hard to tell in the picture, but there is a ton of sauce on top layered with kebab, salad, corn, cucumbers, and even more sauce all inside a pita bread! There is so much food that you have to pick it out with a fork first, and then you can finish eating it like a regular pita bread. Joel and I are still talking about how good it was and how we want it again!! On Joel's mission, if someone cancelled on them it was commonly called, "You get kebab-ed", since you'd go and get kebab instead haha!
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Joel's first apartment in Oslo
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There were so many people out and about on this warm day! I think it was 15°C. You could tell everyone had a little smile on their face!
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Yes. This is my husband and this picture sums him up quite well!!
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I love looking over and seeing his little eyes peeking at me!
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I love this hat on him... makes him look extra chubby!
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... and then he started to eat my face ;)
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On our way home from Oslo we couldn't resist to stop and talk with Joel's uncle David, his wife Kjersti (pronounced Shersti in English), and Joel's two cousins Alex and Andreas. We love talking and spending time with them. They're the kind of people you need to reserve a couple days to spend time with to just talk about everything!
