Last weekend was a big weekend. I will start with Casey leaving us and going home to Mississippi - BOO HOO!! She came to Texas 5 years ago to go to Christ for the Nations in Dallas. My girls met her, her 1st or 2nd semester. About 2 years ago Casey was living close to us and we became VERY close to her and she became 1 of our own. She came and stayed every chance she got and we SO ENJOYED her!! She is 1 of those special ladies that the Lord puts in our family for so many reasons. For some she is a confidant, for others she is a shoulder, for others she is the person that makes them laugh harder then ANYONE! For me she was a person that I could sit with for hrs. and bounce things off of - she was and is someone that the Lord used to speak into my life about SO MANY things! Her knowledge of the Lord is incredible, her giving spirit is an inspiration and she IS 1 of the best friends to my girls that they have ever had!! The Lord is already revealing reasons that she needs to be home for this time and from there - the world is hers!! We love you Casey and you will ALWAYS be a part of our family - you know that!! Thank you for sharing your heart, your life and your WISDOM with us all. We are all better because you are in our lives!!
Here is a couple of pictures of the evening she left - quite sad! We had a big dinner - her sweet Momma (Ava) came to drive back home with her stuff. We prayed over Casey with the most serious prayer that this group of people could pray. Everything leads to something funny with them. Thank GOD it was light or we would have all been in shambles!! Everyone held it together in front of her but we have all had our moments since she left!! First picture is normal - then sad (all 3 of the boys are SO dramatic)!
This is the send off of her getting in the car : (!!
Saturday was Casey's send off and Sunday was Hannah and Olivia's graduation party. They also have a cousin Mason that graduated this year so we had a joint party. Hannah has been through with school since last year for the most part and Liv isn't quite done but we went ahead and killed 3 birds with 1 stone (weird saying, I know)! Liv will be done by Dec. and she will then prepare to go to hair school. Hannah is searching for a Nanny job because she feels called to do that. We are SO beyond proud of the 2 women these girls are!! I could go on FOREVER!!!! Hannah has had her challenges with school - she was mildly dyslexic and also had an eye issue that didn't help her reading challenges. She has overcome by fighting, praying and NOT stopping - till she got the victory! Now she LOVES to read and thanks the Lord all the time - something we all take for granted, she doesn't. She always loved learning and I loved teaching her. College she doesn't think is for her and I know it's not for everyone. Her desire is to minister to God's children through being a Nanny and I think that is a very important call on her life. Her main goal is to be a wife and Mother some day and minister alongside her husband. She has been a DREAM child to raise and I don't think I could think of 1 little tiny, itty bitty thing I would change about her!! SO, SO proud of her - I will talk MORE about her in her birthday blog. Ms. Olivia - she ALWAYS stumps me when I begin to write about her. Not for things to say but where to start and stop. I don't know what it is about her but my heart get's BEYOND FULL when I see her face, write about her, think about her. She has been a kid that really had no use for learning. She was a little tough to encourage that you MUST learn this and that! We did it and I'm glad it's about over! She will take her GED (which is what homeschooled kids usually do) and she will move on to making people beautiful, which is what she is PASSIONATE about doing!! Since I don't have a special blog about her till her birthday in August I will just say a few tiny things about her (yeah right)! I LOVE her love for the Lord! The #1 thing in "homeschooling" our children was JESUS!! He came before ANYTHING!! There wasn't a book, a paper, a test, research - NOTHING was or is more important then our daily walk with Jesus! What they learned in our day to day life of living could NEVER be learned in a book! I LOVE THAT about having them at home. People ALWAYS came 1st - we are here to serve and if someone needed us we would drop EVERYTHING to serve someone. SO, Liv got an A+++ in learning how to serve others. Her hospitality, desire to help, organization - just straight up SERVANT was learned - not in a book but DOING!! EVERYDAY!! If it was serving her Grandma that lives here, getting a call that a friend of mine needs her house cleaned because she was overwhelmed, babysitting kids - WHATEVER it was, Liv was right there serving!! She is AMAZING to me in so many ways! I have seriously learned SO MANY things from her. I love, love, love that I have had the honor to be her teacher and her Mom. She is such a delight! SO, congrats to Hannah and Olivia for getting through this hurdle of life. The learning NEVER stops girls!! The book stuff is usually NOT what you use out in the world!! The life lessons that we have all shared together are what is gonna help you on this journey. I love you both so much and I can't believe we are done with that chapter. What AMAZING women you both are. It's hard to think that anyone EVER will deserve the gems that you both are. What amazing men you will have the opportunity to mold with the Lord's help. THANK you for being such precious, precious daughters to Dad and I!!!
So on to the party! On my side of the family my sister Tina had the 1st grandkids. She has 5 kiddos and when my nephew Jeff graduated we all helped plan an awesome graduation party for him. Well we try to not start something for 1 that we don't do for all and we have succeeded in that. Every year that we have a graduate we try to come up with some unique and clever way for them to get their graduation money (they only get cash for gifts). It's usually a pool party with good food. Some years it's real themed - my sister Tricia's son Logan was by himself a few years ago and his Dad is Greek so the whole party was Greek themed with Greek food, we all wore the Greek outfits - he had this amazing scroll that my sister had written out this story in Greek lingo that was long and every now and then money would fall out of it. Rachel and Sarah had 6 cousins in all graduate with them and theirs was a Hawaiian theme. They got their money by all 6 of them being roped together (my idea) and then they went through my sister whole backyard, together, on a scavenger hunt that was leading them to their money. At every stop was a note/letter from their individual family to their graduate and then it led them to the next spot. At the end it led them to the pool where their treasure was in the bottom (dangerous? maybe)! So this year was AWESOME!! Emily gets SO MUCH of the credit for this and I owe her big time. Emily, my sister Tucson, sister Tricia and I got together on Friday and came up with 40ish question (like Jeopardy style) that would be FUN for a game. They weren't challenging questions - just fun stuff. Some of our categories were reality tv, funny movie quotes, more funny movie quotes, texting, random facts -- so you get the idea. Emily, her friend Whitney and my sister Tucson stayed up almost all night Saturday working on the board and it was a blessing to me because I was having the party with Casey (family is awesome!!) Anyways, we had $ amounts you will see on the game but in the end, they all got an envelope with the same amount of money in it. BUT, it didn't make them less competitive, HA!! It was a big hit and they had such a good time!! My big, extended family blessed the girls SO MUCH and I really do have the BEST family EVER!! SO, here is a bunch of pictures of the par-tay! Note - the picture of Austin and Hannah with her cap on is just for Austin. He still get's a laugh that his girlfriend is a little younger then himself! HA! I can't help it that they mature a little faster then the average kids! haha! I decided to do a slideshow because there is just to many good 1's.
But let's start with the 2 gorgeous GRADUATES!!!
1 comment:
I would have to agree about Olivia being such a servant! (She is the daughter I have the best recollection of since she came to help with my wedding!)
And my oh my that's a lot of graduating going on between all those cousins!
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