Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Our middle son, Daniel, is heading off to college in just a few short days. We’ve been busy this summer, and we realized that we had never thrown him a graduation party, back in June when all the ‘trendy’ and ‘together’ people throw parties.

We are so thankful to all those who contributed to the party!

So Kathy kicked into full-bore party mode. She gathered decorations, made dozens of hand-crafted desserts and hornswoggled many of her friends into bringing chips and salads. In spite of my natural resistance to such things, even I was sucked in, spending hours selecting photos of Daniel to print and display.

Sage advice from Lloyd.

We rented a small picnic shelter at a nearby park, and Kathy’s girlfriends rallied around her to help with the last-minute sandwich assembly and cooking. They made three large dishes of Macaroni and Cheese (Daniel’s favorite comfort food) and headed over to set up at the park.

These girls can stand the heat, so they stayed in the kitchen.

The party was a triumph. Nearly 80 of our close friends attended, many of them writing blessings to Daniel and promising to pray for him this semester. Daniel graciously stood around and talked with his guests in spite of the lure of frisbee-throwing kids all around.

Even standing on my tip-toes, I’m STILL shorter than Daniel.

Unfortunately, several of Daniel’s close male friends were unable to attend the party, being out of town (or in some cases, out of the country). Still, Daniel was able to make do.

These girls brought a lot of life to the party.

When I felt we had reached critical mass, I asked several of the guests to pray for Daniel. When it was my turn to pray, I found myself choked-up, deeply grateful for all those who love Daniel, have invested in him over the years, and who came to celebrate and wish him well. Truly we are blessed in this town, for our family to be so well-loved.

Round up the usual suspects …

On Saturday, Daniel and I will drive down to Calvary Chapel Bible College for his first semester. I am very eager and excited to see what possibilities God opens up for him.