Graduation #1

As a professor, I attended many graduation ceremonies. As a student, my last graduation was in December 2002 when I received my doctorate. Paul graduated three times after I earned my doctorate, but he didn't actually participate in any ceremonies for his BS, MS, or PhD. Jenna, Joshua, and Andrew didn't have a high school graduation ceremony due to being homeschooled. We didn't attend Susie's due to the fact they live in Chicago, and we don't plan to attend Adam's this year for the same reason. There are graduations for homeschoolers in our area, but Nadia has also said she doesn't care to participate in one. All that to say despite the fact I have 3 kids, and my sisters have 13 kids, Jenna's graduation today was the first one we've attended for a relative in quite a while. Jenna attended my graduation in 2002. She was less than a month old. Her boyfriend, Toby, also graduated this week with his BS from Liberty, but like Paul he didn't participate in a ceremony. Jenna actually completed her BS in December 2024. She's been working on her MS in Occupational Therapy since then and expects to graduate again next year. Jenna had six family members attend her graduation at Messiah University - Yvonne (her mom), Toby (her boyfriend), Paul and I, and two of her brothers (Andrew and Brendan). After the almost 2-hour outdoor ceremony concluded, we took pictures and then eventually made our way to Texas Roadhouse for a late lunch. Milo was home alone for 9 hours, so he was very glad when we returned home. 

Toby has accepted a job offer for a job in Harrisburg, and he found an apartment to live in until he and Jenna buy a townhouse that isn't far from where Jenna lives or his new job. They plan to get married in 2026 and settle down in the Camp Hill area. Normally, when there isn't massive amount of traffic due to a graduation (ha ha), it only takes us about 90 minutes to get to that area. It is nice having at least one niece live within a reasonable drive of our home. Adam is going to be starting at the University of Florida in the fall, and Joshua will be starting at Appalachian Bible College, which is in West Virginia. Next spring there will be four people graduating - Nadia from high school, Susie and Andrew with their BS degrees, and Jenna with her MS degree. Because Andrew's graduation is on the same day as the homeschool prom, I don't think we'll be driving to Ohio for that graduation. Whether we attend Jenna's graduation next year will depend on when we end up going to Europe. We will make it a priority to attend her wedding. 

Our kids didn't attend Jenna's graduation because they were in Indiana today. Yesterday morning Ed picked them up at 6:15 am on his way to church. They left the church around 7:00 to drive to IWU, which is about eight hours away without stops. Last night they completed the written and preliminary individual portions of the competition. Ten of the kids from our church (including Nadia and Ian) qualified to be in the individual finals (meaning no one from another church did). The teams from North Rome didn't attend this quiz. I expect some of their quizzers (Ruth and Julia at the minimum) to qualify for individual finals in June. As for the writtens, Nadia finished in 9th place, and Ian finished in 10th place. In the team competition, Ian's team (Ben, Ian, and Isaiah) finished in 3rd place, and Nadia's team (Nadia, Faith, and Jill) were in 4th place. Two teams from our church were in 1st and 2nd place. It seems they drove all the way to Indiana just to compete against their own teammates although there were other teams there. For the individual finals, Ian and Nadia were in a four-way tie with Alex and Faith for 5th place. Daniel, Joey, Isaiah, and Ben were ahead of them. Oliver was on the team that won first place in the team competition (Joey, Xandir, Daniel, and Oliver) but I highly doubt Oliver had anything to do with their victory. Despite the fact he probably didn't help them one iota, he received 1/4 of what their team received in cash for having won the team competition. I think the winnings should have just been split between the other three boys, but that's not how it works. So ironically, the child of mine who did the least studying by far is the one who received a cash prize. However, we are not allowing him to compete in the competition next month due to the paltry effort he has put forth in studying Luke this year. Hopefully he will put a lot more effort in studying 1 & 2 Corinthians over the next 13 months. 

Graduation ceremonies are frankly pretty boring, but it was a pleasure to spend some time with my sister and some of her kids. Here are some other things I'm thankful for right now:

1. Our second year of having a co-op meet at our house came to an end on Tuesday. The kids usually eat lunch at our house, but on that day Ben and I drove the kids to the park in our town for a picnic lunch and a game of Wiffle ball. 

2. On Wednesday I had a conversation with my dad and one of my cousins as the three of us are joint trustees for a trust that uses money Grandpa set aside to pay for his great grandchildren's college education. When he was alive, he paid all twelve of his grandchildren to go to college. Now his money is being used to pay for my cousins' kids, my nieces/nephews, and my own kids to go to college. On our side of the family those monies have only gone toward Susie, Jenna, and Andrew so far, but Yvonne recently asked if there was a way money could be used from the fund to pay for college tuition bills incurred through dual enrollment (when they are still in high school). Yvonne and Joe paid for the first 30 or so credits of Andrew's college degree while he was in high school, and Paul and I have already paid for Nadia's first 34 credits. Through our discussion we decided that from now on the fund can pay for dual enrollment courses as long as the student realizes they will still be limited to the maximum we will pay altogether for each student's degree. So, the process was already begun for Nadia's upcoming tuition bill to paid by the trust, for which I am very grateful! Thank you, Grandpa!! 

3. I'm grateful the kids can participate in the Bible quizzing program at our church. They meet for 90 minutes every Wednesday. I'm thankful they had a safe trip out to Indiana yesterday and am praying the last few hours of their trip home will go smoothly. The Bible quizzing team has been the place where they have developed most of their closest friendships.

4. Yesterday after I took Paul's car for its annual inspection, I met Cheri for lunch at Panera. We had planned to walk, but it was cold and rainy, so I had my favorite salad for the first time this year. 

5. As tomorrow is Mother's Day, I'm very thankful for the mom God gave me. I still miss her very much. I also miss my mother-in-law. I am very grateful God gave me three children. I love being their mother. I also feel like a "dog mom" so I have to say I'm also thankful for Milo. I longed for decades for the day I'd become a mom. I had zero desire to ever have a dog, but I'm very glad Milo is part of our family.