US Citizenship for Grandgirls
- plitle
- Jul 11
- 3 min read
July 10, 2025
Dear Friend,
The war with Iran that began so suddenly ended in just the same manner. It was actually a bit disconcerting to run to the bomb shelter 5 times one day and the next go back to “normal” life. But it was definitely welcome! The grandgirls enjoyed ending the school year with the their friends at parties and events. Heidi and I were just happy to breath a bit.
Normal meant that we could take our planned trip the US and get to the appointment for the grandgirls’ pursuit of United States citizenship. The last few weeks we tried to get things done which couldn’t be accomplished while missiles were landing and everything had shut down.
One of those things was getting a copy of Dasha’s death certificate. It never arrived despite having ordered a copy from the Interior Ministry online months ago. So, this past Sunday I headed out to the Haifa office to try to get it. One Iranian missile had landed near the building during the war and much of the building’s glass windows had been blown out. The mulit-story building and the area was closed to public access. The next day I tried an office out of town. I got the document!
The next day I went to the court house to certify the grandgirls’ birth certificates as well as Dasha’s death certificate. Once there I discovered that the documents could be certified only by a notary in Jerusalem. Our flight was scheduled for that evening! After a lot of texting and calling, the Lord provided a way to get them digitally certified. So today I have them on my computer, all certified!
Yes, I’m writing today from States! We made it! We arrived to Missouri safely last evening after more than 24 hours of travel. Thankfully, much of that was a direct overnight flight to the States, giving us a bit of needed sleep. The last leg was the drive from the KC airport to Harrisonville, and we were grateful that our good friend, Martha, was able to take us the rest of the way.
We will be in Missouri until July 22nd when we’ll make our way to New Jersey. We’ll be visiting congregations and small groups on this trip, and we expect our time to be quite full. The weekend of July 26-27 we plan to visit a congregation on Long Island. Then we hope to enjoy some time with family before the interview. After the interview we will head up for a long overdue visit to New England, visiting churches in Vermont (August 2-3), New Hampshire (August 4-11) and the Boston area (August 12-18), before leaving for home.
While there are still a lot of details to work out, we’re hoping to see many folks while maintaining a fun, child-friendly visit. Please contact me if you’d like to join one of our get-togethers and I’ll see what we can do to catch up. We appreciate that you would pray for our time here that:
We would be able to connect with many people but also find sufficient time to relax in fun, child-friendly ways.
The messages we share would be an encouragement and blessing to those we speak with.
Hannah and Noah will be able to care for the details in Israel while we are away
The citizenship interview will go well and the grandgirls will become Americans while keeping their Israeli citizenship.
Thank you so much for your partnership with us in this ministry! We are grateful for so many who intercede on our behalf and on the behalf of our nation. The Lord is at work to fulfill His good promises made to His people millennia ago. What a privilege it is to be His and to serve as a part of what He is doing to advance His kingdom in this world!
Yours in the Messiah,
Phil and Heidi
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