Graduation Day is finally here!

The day finally arrived when Alex could move the graduation tassel from the right side to the left side and finally be finished with high school. The graduation ceremony was held in the Sanctuary and was presided over by the Pastor, the Principle and a couple of the Youth Pastors.
The event started at 7pm and finally finished up sometime around 9:30pm. In between there was far too much singing and a sermon that seemed to drag on forever, but finally we got to see all 23 graduates (the most ever for Trinity) walk up onto the stage and receive their diploma. Of course there was a long line of people they had to hug and most of the hugs were quite awkward – especially for Alex and then the pauses for photo opportunities from the parents. The students then walked back to their parents and handed over their diploma and a rose for Mom. Of course Alex forgot to give Mom and Dad a hug and Dad had to call him back before he got too far away – he later claimed to not know that he was supposed to give us a hug.
Then after everyone received their diploma, there was a power point slide show of all the students – each parent had to submit 12 photos for the slide show. (yes: 23 students x 12 photos each). We think Alex probably got the most ‘oohs” and ‘ahhhs’ from his baby photos because he was of course a very cute baby. When everything was finally done, the parents and students all stood around outside for a few minutes and mingled.
After everyone talked and took a few photos, we all proceeded to the after-party in the gym where the parents all had to have a small table set-up with their child’s memorabilia from school on it. In addition, their child’s favorite dessert was on another table for everyone to enjoy; Alex chose chocolate chip cookies (everything had to be home cooked and not purchased in a store). We stayed at the after-party for a while and had some cake and punch and then Nana and Gung Gung took Alex and Dad to Cracker Barrel for dinner – we were all starving. Sam and Mom stayed and took the table down and went home to relax (they had eaten earlier in the evening).
We are very proud of Alex – he survived several years of Trinity Christian School and made it through a challenging year. If he can make it through all of this we know he will be well prepared for anything college may have in store for him! Congratulations!!