Joshua Guy Stocks Graduates!

It was a week of parties and celebrations as we went from house to house honoring the graduates with food and drink. Nine parties in seven days! Whew! It was tiring but oh so much fun. Josh and his friends took advantage of the week by hanging out, playing basketball & X-Box, even sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the school one night.

Graduation day was full of smiles and tears. His school has the tradition of honoring the families by giving the mother a rose during the ceremony. It is a special moment. Afterwards we hosted a group of people for a cookout. I think after a hectic week of preparations we were all ready to sit and relax, being together one last time as families.

The exodus of graduates and their families started the next day. Constantly saying good-bye is a fact of life in the missionary world. Knowing we may never see many of these people again makes it more difficult. We have lots of happy memories though.

This marks the end of one phase of life for the us. Ralph and I are officially empty-nesters. Amy returned to the US Saturday and Josh follows on Wednesday. While this chapter is coming to a close we are excited to see what God has in store for all of us in the next ones!