T Graduates!!!

On May 16, 2015, T graduated from Edmond North High School at the ripe old age of 17.  She had a graduating class of 600 students, so it was quite the ceremony!!

A couple of weeks before the graduation ceremony, there was a Robing Ceremony.  I had never heard of such a thing, but it is a ceremony where the students receive their cap and gown.  The student chooses someone they admire to "robe" them on stage.  When we found out about the ceremony, T was stressing over who she should have place her robe on her.  She narrowed it down to R and chose him to participate in the robing ceremony.  This was a neat ceremony, and it really made us realize that graduation was actually coming!

After the robing ceremony, our next graduation activity was The Scholarship Ceremony at Oklahoma Christian University.  T was awarded a Dean's Scholarship at OC, and we are so proud of her!!

T accepting her scholarship award.  So very proud of this girl!!

And just so ALL the attention wasn't on his sister, Little R struck a quick pose afterwards!

Brother & Sister are very proud of T, too!

The week before graduation, we had a small party for T with friends.  She wanted dinner at The Garage (her favorite burger place), and then dessert at a friend's house.  These are the people we spend our normal weekends with, so of course they are our first choice for celebrating with!!

Sweet decorations made by friends!!  These boys can create anything from paper and Legos!

And then, before we knew it, it was graduation day!!  R was much more emotional than I was on this day.  The whole thing was so big (remember, 600 students??) and so impersonal that I just never felt too emotional about the whole thing.  I mean, graduation is what our kids are supposed to do, right?  It's what we've expected from her all along, right?  I can say I am very proud of the way she graduated though.  This girl has been to 10 different schools in her lifetime.  She started high school in Germany, and it wasn't a great experience.  Those two years were difficult on many levels for her.  But we moved back to the States before her junior year, and she turned it all around!  She graduated with a 3.5+ GPA, and scored a 28 (31 in English) on her ACT.  She is one very resilient girl!! 

Pre-graduation photo shoot with MiMi & PaPa

And Grandma & Grandpa Craig, who came all the way from North Carolina!

My heart!!

Group pic!!

Filing into their seats.  The procession of graduates walking through the stadium took probably 20 minutes, at least!!

Our view of the stage

Our girl!!

Getting that diploma

And now she's a graduate!!

So proud of you T!!!

After graduation, we had a small party at our NEW house!!  We moved in the weekend before, and R had to return to Lawton, and left me with a house full of boxes.  I had 6 days to get the house ready enough to host a graduation party!!  I can honestly say that I was literally just trying to survive through graduation at that point.  Probably the most exhausted I have been in my entire life!  I kept telling the kids that entire week, "If we can just get through graduation, things will be okay." 

But all the hard work was worth it.  We had a house full of family and friends, celebrating this big accomplishment with our girl!  We loved having everyone here, and of course we loved celebrating with T.

This girl is going to go far!!  She is so talented, and so very smart!  If she realized even half her greatness, she would be unstoppable!  Someday I pray that she can see just how talented and special she is.  I know that God has great plans for her...it has been obvious all along!  I can't wait to watch her go out into this world, outside of our home, and show the world what she's made of!