Graduation

Friday night Karlyn and I met Ryan to eat and then go to my brother Kaleb's high school graduation. We tried out Five Guy's hamburgers and I have to say I wasn't impressed. :-/ We have a little place near our house called Burger Island that we like a lot better!

We headed over to the church where the ceremony was being held and I guess I should have known how it would go with a two year old. First we had to leave the worship center because someone needed to use the bathroom, five minutes after we'd just been there and she'd said no, she didn't need to. So we trudged out there and then got stuck back inside against the wall because all the graduates were making their way one-by-one down the aisle to the stage. We couldn't go to our seats yet because people were snapping pics so I had to contain Karlyn, in heels for what seemed like forever. Fun!

We finally got back up there but the little one was not going to be quiet. After the opening song everyone clapped and she said, "it's over?" No hun, just two more hours. During the prayer, she kept talking so Ryan finally took her out to the foyer/lobby/huge open space? They even went outside for a while because in her daddy's words, she was being a wild child. I felt so bad for them out there the whole time and eventually she even fell asleep. The ceremony was really nice <and long> and I enjoyed the speech that the school's headmaster gave. Two things he said that I liked in particular ~

"God cannot offer you hope and peace apart from Himself. Because it is not there." (I think he was quoting someone else...)

"Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else."

Luckily Kaleb was somewhat near the front once they started handing out diplomas; after he walked across the stage I kind of zoned out and perhaps got on Facebook a little. :> Finally, it was over and we got to meet Ryan and Karlyn outside, visit with Kaleb, and snap a few pics.

I got kind of sad driving home and going to bed that night, just thinking about how fast Kaleb has grown up, along with all of my siblings. Wasn't it just yesterday that they were running around in diapers and standing on the open dishwasher door?? I'm so proud of each one of them. Kaleb is heading to West Point this Fall which is so cool! I can't wait to see where the Lord leads him over the next few years. I'm glad we got to be there and celebrate this special night with him.