Life Update, continued

It’s been a wonderful whirlwind of a couple of weeks.

Family came to my house from out of town for my son’s graduation. It was so good to see them all again!

I went on grandma dates with three of my grandsons. That was fun! Each one of them is such an individual, each one different from the others. “T” wanted go to the grocery store so he could pick out treats to share with everybody. “N” wanted to go to Walmart to pick out a toy for himself. I talked him into going to the local ice cream shop instead, and he thought it was so “cool” that they had doggie ice cream and a community dog dish for thirsty dogs who accompanied their owners! “J” wants adventure, so a trip to the bookstore at 9pm (past his bedtime, you know) and a rain storm en route was just what he needed to be overflowing with excitement!

I’m really glad my oldest daughter and her husband are such good house guests! He did the dishes every morning except for the day of their departure. And she was my superhero on the day of the graduation! She made two cakes AND went through old photos of my son and assembled a couple of photo boards for all the graduation guests to see. Thank you, Crystal!!

Oh, and my sister came to the rescue helping me decorate the tables for the graduation and award ceremony refreshments, and she went to Little Caesar’s for pizzas for supper so we wouldn’t have to cook.

These were all answers to prayer, as I told the Lord that morning, “Lord, if this is going to happen today, I need your help. There is no way I can do it on my own.” And it happened! Praise God for sending so much practical help!

So, my son has graduated, and all our house guests have gone home.

A couple of days later, my son and daughter and their school went to their yearly International Student Convention with their school group. My husband and I drove there in my car to join them a few hours later.

You may be wondering what this convention is all about. Well, students from many countries have been preparing all year to compete in academics, art, science and social studies exhibits, photography, sewing, wood and metal working, athletics, music, platform events, and color guard/flag corps. But there is a huge spiritual component to the convention, as well.

We had a great speaker Sunday morning before convention officially began; I’ll try to share a bit of what I got from his message in another post.

The total number of students, their sponsors, convention staff, and guests (like my husband and myself) was over 1,700 people. Students came from numerous states in the US, as well as Myanmar, Mexico, China, South Africa, Japan, Ireland, Kenya, Uganda, Philippines, and a number of other countries.

Our kids did not place in some of the academic competitions that we have traditionally placed in in the past. But they still did very well. They would not have even been in those events if they had not placed at regional competitions.

Is it okay if I tell you the events that they did place in? It was very exciting for us!

So, my son got a first place on his science theoretical research paper and board.

He also got 3rd place in traditional instinctive archery.
My daughter got 5th place on her non-linear PowerPoint presentation.
And one of my daughter’s friends got 1st place in the girls’ 400-meter dash. Her friend also got an automatic 1st place for memorizing the entire book of Proverbs and quoting it one chapter at a time before the official beginning of the convention.

We went to rallies every night where students who had performed excellently in music, poetry recitation, monologues, famous speeches, and so on, did their performances in front of everyone. One student preached a short sermon, and he preached as well as most adult preachers I’ve ever heard!

And we had special speakers every night. One of them is a ventriloquist, so he did 3 short performances, plus he preached twice.

The speaker who spoke the last night was Mr. David Ring. He was born a blue baby and left that way for 18 minutes before they revived him. This gave him cerebral palsy. I’ll write about him in a separate post as well. He was very motivational!

Anyway, I’ve got seven drafts and not enough time to get them published right now, as we got home and have to catch up on all the laundry, lawn, and garden that did not get tended to while we were gone.

In addition, tonight was the first night of VBS, and my daughter and I are both helping, so I’ll check on your blogs as time permits. See you soon! 🙂

God bless you all!

Love because of Jesus,

Ruth