The month of October brought us back to Wellington, Florida. This time we are staying with the remaining National Treasure, my Thea Juana (Joanna). She was very happy to see us and we were happy as well. Now, instead of video calling every morning sharing recipes, we could now share in person! Our plan is to stay October and November here.
WELL…. time just slipped away these last two months so looking back, I will just share the highlights of our stay……..
The Consulate Calls…..
We were back one week and just settling in when I get a call from daughter #1. After numerous emails and phone messages over the last few months, she finally got through and obtained an appointment for us with the Greek Consulate of Houston the following week. Woo Hoo!! I quickly made plans to fly to Houston. This was the moment we had been waiting for since June, the moment when all our documents could be finalized and submitted. Our appointment was set for Tuesday, Oct 11 at 12:30pm.
I landed in Houston Monday morning, Oct 10. After settling in my daughter’s apartment, it was time to organize our documents for the appointment. I had given my daughter all my originals prior to leaving Austin, so I assumed they were in a safe place. Well, they were in such a safe place that we couldn’t find the documents! Andrea and Ty searched everywhere to no avail. I tried to keep them calm, but I was worried myself. St. Phanourios to the rescue. If you pray fervently to St. Phanourios, he is known to help you find things. I pulled up his Icon on my phone and prayed fervently for assistance. Documents were found shortly after! Thank you St. Phanourious!! In return, St. Phanourios asks that you make a cake in honor of his parents. Here’s the cake and the recipe:
1 cup vegetable oil , plus more for greasing
1 cup fresh orange juice , (from about 3 oranges)
1/2 cup brandy
1 cup sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
4 cups all-purpose flour , plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Confectioners sugar , for dusting (optional)
Put the wet ingredients together in a bowl and the dry in a separate bowl. Mix them together and place in a greased/floured pan. Before placing in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean, say a prayer over the cake.
Prayer for the Blessing of the Phanouropita
O Lord, Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Bread, the munificent Bestower of the food that abideth unto eternity, the Giver of good things, Who through Elias didst cause miraculous sustenance to gush forth, the Hope of the hopeless, the Help of the helpless, and the Salvation of our souls: Bless these gifts and those who have offered them unto Thee, to Thy glory and in honor of the Great-martyr Phanourios, Grant, O Good One, unto those who have prepared these gifts [names may be inserted here] all Thine earthly and Heavenly good things. Gladden them in joy with Thy countenance, and show them the paths to salvation. Be swift to fulfill the requests of their hearts and their every wish, guiding them to the doing of Thy commandments, that in gladness and rejoicing they may forever hymn and glorify Thy most honorable and majestic Name, by the intercessions of the Most blessed Theotokos, of the holy, glorious Great-martyr Phanourios and of all Thy Saints. Amen.
Tuesday came. We didn’t know what to expect, but we had all our documents and plenty of green (cash). We assumed this appointment would be a gathering and verification of documents, with a follow up appointment where we bring with us two Greek citizens as witnesses to verify that we were upstanding humans worthy of citizenship for Greece. At that second appointment we assumed we would also take an aural test to see how much of the language, geography, and history we knew. So I was feeling pretty good about this appointment as our lawyer in Athens did an amazing job of organizing all our documents. Well, the first hitch was when the Consulate thought we would have to redo all our translations since our lawyer did the translations from copies and not originals. Something to the effect that if he undid the staples and attached the translations to our originals, our documents would not be treated as authentic. The cost of having them re-translated in the Consulates office would be expensive. I had cash and plenty of it so I said no problem.
Second hitch – actually more of a heart attack moment – the Consulate asked Andrea to step out so he could have a moment to speak with me. I immediately knew what this was – he was going to assess my Greekness now instead of returning for a second interview. I’m not ready for this!!! I can’t think on my feet worth a damn! He asked me a series of questions, like what the largest cities in Greece were (piece of cake), geographical regions (okay, sort of knew), asked me to name a popular Greek musician (deer in headlights) – I just blanked! Thinking back I should have just said Maria Callas, and then stand up to sing the Greek National Anthem. I tried to redirect by pointing out the picture on his wall of the President of Greece (Katerina Sakellaropoulou), which I think amused him. Then he asked me (in Greek) how often I’d been to Greece and where I stayed. I managed to get through the interview, but looking back, I could have done so much better! I never told him I could sing the National Anthem, or every single hymn of the Greek Orthodox Church – like literally he could have named any feast day or liturgical seasonal hymn and I could have sung it on the spot. But NO, I didn’t think of that. Andrea did a far better job with her interview than me when he called her in, but she too felt she could do better. She did know the number of blue/white stripes on the Greek flag and what they represent, which is pretty impressive. Like who knows that? Nevertheless, we passed and our documents were sent to Athens with his approval. We have an official registration number and are awaiting our final approval!
Just to let you know the citizenship process for our particular situation – we filed for Greek citizenship by naturalization via Article 10. The short story is that we had to apply for citizenship by Greek descent and not direct birth which is wild as my mother was born in Greece and my father’s parents were born in Greece. My mom left Rhodes in 1948, during the Greek civil war and after Greece took back the Dodecanese islands from Germany. At that time, the Greek authorities went door to door to do a census and declare the inhabitants Greek citizens. My mom and her older sister (Thea Katina) weren’t present, so they were never registered as Greek. Her parents and the two younger children (Joanna and Theopitza) were present and listed as Greek citizens. So my mom’s registry is closed and can not be reopened. Here is the explanation from our lawyer to Andrea when she inquired:
To sum up:
1. your mother is not eligible for the Greek citizenship by birth through her mother (due to the fact that her mother was married to a US citizen prior to 1982 and had a Greek Orthodox marriage), 2. your mother is not eligible for the Greek citizenship by birth through her father (due to the fact that her father never obtained the Greek citizenship and he is now deceased), 3. your mother would have been eligible for the Greek citizenship through the procedure of art. 14, if her mother’s registration in Greece was “kanoniki/regular” and, therefore, proved her Greek citizenship, 4. however, your mother may not apply for the Greek citizenship through the procedure of art. 14 due to the fact that her mother’s registration is not “kanoniki/regular” and she is now deceased, 5. your mother may, therefore, attempt to apply for the Greek citizenship through the procedure of naturalization of article 10 of the Greek Nationality Code, and 6. your only option for the acquisition of the Greek citizenship is through the procedure of naturalization of article 10 of the Greek Nationality Code.
So there you have it. Even though I’m 100% Greek on both sides of my family, I’m apparently not Greek enough for citizenship. The documents I needed apostilled and translated are as follows: American Passport, AFM (greek tax filing number), criminal history (FBI document), birth certificate, birth and baptism certificate from the Greek Orthodox Church in the US, my parent’s marriage certificate.
Additional documents to determine my Greekness: Maternal grandparents certificate of family status from the municipality of Rhodes, my mothers two old certificates of registration issued in 1946 & 1947, my mothers birth & baptism certificates from St. Nicholas in Rhodes, my mother’s Greek passport, her certificate of naturalization to the US, my fathers birth certificate, my paternal grandparents marriage certificate, my paternal grandfathers certificate of registration with the male rolls from the municipality of Pylos, my paternal grandfathers naturalization to the US, my first marriage certificate, divorce decree and ecclesiastical divorce, my marriage to David (both civil and church), and finally, a greek school certificate and three letters of recommendation (two from Greek Orthodox Priests). My application was 155 pages which included originals, apostilles and translations.
Why am I devoting a lot of space on my blog to this? Because it is the culmination of almost 8 years of work!! It is not easy to obtain naturalization via article 10, damn near impossible because the Consulate has to determine if you’re “Greek” enough. What does that even mean?!
The good news about about meeting with the Consulate in Houston is that I could spend time with my granddaughter. The Greek Festival in Galveston was happening that weekend and my daughter/son in-law needed a babysitter. YiaYia to the rescue! Turns out Anastasia likes baseball too!
We celebrated my sister’s birthday the day before leaving for Houston. We had a wonderful time!
My Thea lives next to the golf course. There’s a big pond out there where iguana’s hang out. I should have gotten closer, but they’re a little skittish.
We were also able to see the Air Show in Stuart, FL. It was a really nice airshow and helped David cope with his sadness on missing Wings Over Houston which he never misses.
We enjoyed a night out with my sister and Pantelis at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church. We were celebrating the church’s name day. Lots of fun had by all!
Around Thanksgiving, I was blessed to receive a visit from the kiddos. Granted they weren’t in Florida to see me (they came to visit Thea), but I live in my own fantasy world…..
