My Oldest Son's Graduation Day

What a wonderful evening August 16th turned out to be.  There was a threat of rain that never materialized until after the evening was over.  This was an answer to prayer since we had all our activities outside!

My sister, Rebekah, was indispensable.  Instead of her coming and being my right hand man it was quite the opposite.  At least I hope I was helpful to her somewhat.  She was simply incredible.  She made 5 different cheesecakes, seafood fettuccine alfredo, two homemade salad dressings and a beautiful fruit tower.  All her efforts were certainly appreciated, not only by me but those in attendance.  People were ooohing and ahhing over the taste and presentation of the food.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of her with Seth until the day after, when she was in more casual attire.

We started the evening with supper.

After everyone’s bellies were full we moved on to the program.  

We have an African lady in our church that wanted to do an African tradition with Seth.  She presented Seth a lei with money pinned to it and then put a gray wig on his head to represent wisdom.  In the Congo they sprinkle powder on their hair but since Seth’s hair is already blonde this stood out a little better.

Then I spoke.  Yikes! I am no public speaker but I figured I should at least do it for my son’s sake.  I made it through and then my dh said a few words and introduced Seth.

Seth, the valedictorian and salutatorian of his class (ha!), gave a short but humorous speech.  I thought he did an excellent job.  He thanked me and even gave me flowers.  (Lest you wonder why your son doesn’t do this for you – Russell had to give him a few suggestions.)

My husband then sang a song to honor all the mothers there – "Maker of the Home" by Beverley Bradley.  If you haven’t heard her sing it, I would encourage you to get the recording.  It will bless you.

 My son played the cello, a niece the violin, and a friend on the classical guitar.

Since Seth has done quite a bit of memorization work, Russell thought it would be nice if he recited from memory the famous speech by Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"  Seth did a fabulous job delivering all 7 minutes of it.

Seth’s grandpa (my dad) said a few words but Russell’s dad is in China at the present moment so unfortunately, he wasn’t able to be here.

Then various other people spoke, including our pastor.  My brother-in-law, nephew and a good friend from Pennsylvania that could not be here videoed a message and sent it with my sister, so we played that too.

Serenity & Justus gave a short speech about their big brother Seth.  They were so cute!

Then we had the slide show that I spent about 48 hours preparing.  Wow!  Those things are time consuming but worth it.  And it was only about 13 minutes long!   

After this we presented Seth a diploma from the Bradshaw Mountain Academy (the name of our homeschool). 

That concluded the program.  People then visited and played volleyball and walleyball.

Here Seth is wearing the "wig of wisdom" with his cousin beside him.

I can hardly believe one of my children has graduated.  I remember going to the homeschool convention before I ever had children because I was always interested in it and now I have one graduated.  Amazing!

What an exciting evening it was for our family.

Copyright 2008 Treasuring the Moments