Graduating our oldest

 Sunday marked a milestone for our family - our oldest, and first child to be home educated, graduated from high school!  We started the journey of homeschooling with the thought that we would eventually put our children in public school "once we were moved to a better part of town" - yet each base we were stationed at seemed to have a successively worse school district, and we continued homeschooling until it became an important and fully integrated part of our lives.  BY then, it was clear that this is part of God's plan for us (and probably part of His plan that I was too stubborn to "hear" any other way).  So, from preschool through high school, we have studied and worked, worked and studied, and have grown as a family and as a collection of individuals.  It's been a wild ride at times, but a good one!  I'm so thankful for the opportunity that we have been blessed with in schooling our children at home!

Here are some pictures of her special day:

After TJ spoke (using Proverbs 31 and Colossians 3:12-17 as the "foundation" of his talk), and I gave a little history on our homeschooling journey, he gave Natasha her diploma (after reading it aloud to our guests) and I gave her a little statuette (both pictured at the top of this blog entry)

After the short ceremony, we served refreshments and had a time of fellowship, enjoying the quiet afternoon - we had about 25 show up to celebrate her day, and had fun in each other's company.  It was a relaxed time, and she came away from it all smiles!

The cupcakes were made by a friend who has done a good bit of professional catering and cake decorating - they were scrumptious!  (and her frosting beats the pants off of mine - I need to get a copy of her recipe!!)

Natasha made regular and blueberry scones, and I sliced strawberries and watermelon and pineapple, plus put out some pretzels, and we had a 7 layer dip with chips made by a friend as well.  Simple, easy, and nice.

We also had a display board with pictures collected from infancy through her birthday last month, which came together nicely, and her friends especially enjoyed the ages and stages of her "life in pictures".

All said, it was quite an exciting experience!  One down...  at least eight more to go!  I'm not in any rush, though! *grin*