The Graduate!

So many events in a child's life make a mom and dad proud. It starts with their first smile, giggle, crawl, sitting up, walking, and grows from there. And we have had so many proud moments with our five children. We love watching them set goals, work hard and achieve their goals. When our children are happy, we're happy. That leads me to congratulating my 4th child, Joshua. He graduated from B.Y.U. this month. In fact, he just took his last class, and we couldn't be more proud. It wasn't an easy road for Josh due to a number of interruptions. He started with playing basketball and attending BYU Hawaii, then served a two year mission in the Philippines. He then attended classes at Irvine Valley College, then transferred to BYU. He took a few years off to get married and have a couple of wonderful kids, but was determined to graduate. So, he did just that, went back and finished. And he did this while juggling a full time job to take care of his family. Statistics of people actually finishing after a few starts, stops, transfers and lost credits, is low. But, by gosh...Josh did it! :-) (I tend to like rhyming.)

So with this graduation (walking in April), we have a mixed loyalty factor at both football and basketball time. Ken graduated from BYU. I, in direct contrast attended the University of Utah (U of U) (big time school rivalry). Ben graduated from the U of U, Angela played basketball and graduated from BYU. Chris played basketball and attended the U of U (after two years playing at Duke), Joshua now graduated from BYU, and his wife, Ashleigh graduated from BYU as well. Ben's wife graduated from BYU and Chris wife graduated from the U of U. David has had as many transfers as Joshua with playing and signing originally to play basketball at BYU, transferred to Gonzaga, then ended his college career playing at Azusa Pacific here in California. You see our dilemma? 


But...no matter who we root for with college sports, we adore our kids and are beyond proud of everything they have ever accomplished. We are blessed to have five miracles in our lives. Miracles that come with names ... Benjamin Kenneth, Angela, Christopher Clayton, Joshua Reid and David Michael. Each different from the other, but each bringing us such joy. And all make up an eternal family. I miss them and relish every second we have together. Thank goodness for Skype, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter and the occasional phone call. Congratulations Joshua!