Jake Graduates part 1, Senior Sunday

I am very close to the beginning of a weekend of celebrating my son's graduation.  I am so excited, so sad and so ready to just get to it and be done with it!  We have already said good bye to his high school wrestling years, classes, working at the Ren Fest.  I would like to say scouts but we are still in the nail biting stage of the Eagle project.  At this point we will be working right up to the midnight deadline of his18th birthday in 21 more days.  No, of course I am not panicking!  Expect a couple more posts on that topic in the coming weeks.

Last weekend was the first of the celebrations for his graduation.  Our church brought up the seniors during the service to give them a special blessing and pray for them.  There are 7 kids, all girls but Jake, graduating this year.  The biggest class to graduate in our 8 year history and probably the biggest class for the next several years.  2 was our previous record and the number we are expecting again next year.  While Jake was the first of this group to join the church most of these girls showed up within the first year or 2 and together they have gone through the awkward jr high years, high school, confirmation, taken several missions trips and put several volunteer youth group leaders through the paces before we finally hired Pete.  They have been a great group and we will be sad to see them go as they spread across the country and out of the country in the fall.

Random side note, because I like to point out all my failings here on this blog:  The shirt Jake is wearing is the same shirt he wore in his 9th grade school picture.  Sadly it really was the nicest thing in his closet for the occasion.  I also noted, as I have been looking at his school pictures lately in anticipation of the open house, that he also wore this shirt in his 11th grade school pictures although under his Africa shirt so it isn't obvious. Still I was slightly embarrassed to realize I hadn't bought Jake a shirt worth wearing since 9th grade so off we went to the mall Monday morning where I spent a little more than I had planned but can now say he is set for any summer occasion.  I suppose I will have to drive down to Wheaton sometime next fall to do the same again.  I don't think we bought a single new thing for him to wear last fall.  This year has been a blur.