Graduation is coming!!

It's only a few days away.  Graduation....We have many homeschoolers in our area and we take part in a county-wide graduation ceremony.  There are 90 homeschool graduates participating this year.  It is not only a testimony to homeschooling but a wonderful testimony that the Lord is faithful and supplies our every need. This is our fourth homeschool graduate.  She is so excited!

This past Sunday, our church, at all three services, honored the high school graduates. At the third service, there were three homeschoolers out of a dozen graduates that stood at the front of the church.  I have no idea how many homeschoolers go our church; it is so big but there are several. The graduates were given a new Bible, a mini-sermonette about living for the Lord, and then the pastors and their families gathered around them at the altar and prayed over them.  I cried and rejoiced as the children and I stood next to my husband as he laid his hands on her head and prayed blessings over her and her future.

This year was a little harder for her than other years.  Her older sister graduated last year as well as many of her friends. She and her sister did almost everything together.  They are not only sisters but the best of friends and confidants.  They share a room, went to the same co-op classes, shared textbooks and classes in our homeschool, had the same co-op friends (Their best friends were even sisters.), had the same place of employment, went to the prom together. and worshiped together.  This year was lonely for her.

She left many activities this year in tears, feeling as if she had no one to talk to.  This was heartbreaking for me as well.  I encouraged her to make new friends.  She did.  She started to reach out to some younger girls at co-op by joining a Bible study.  At graduation meetings, I encouraged her to continue to reach out.  She made some new friends but when they all got together, the other girls would reminisce about fun things they had done in years past and she just didn't have the history with them as she did with her sister and older friends.

She is getting ready to move on to her college level studies.  Although both of her sisters attended college while living at home, this one is hoping to get accepted into a school that will require her to live on site.  Although this year was hard, maybe it was just preparation for the move next year.  Who knows maybe the Lord has something else in mind.