WE'VE GRADUATED!!!!

And yes, i mean "we."

It was a labor of love--not to mention blood, sweat, and tears--to "encourage" Jarel through his final year of high school. We kept our fingers crossed and prayed regularly, did some nagging and some cheerleading, and HALLELUJAH, we graduated!!

It's been a struggle, always. You see, Jarel loves the social life of school, but the actual work? not so much. He has entertained and frustrated for lo these many years now. We've developed deeper relationships with teachers than we ever intended. We've done new math/old math/last week's math, and even in his younger years, dug math homework out of a hole in his bedroom wall. We've received too many to count renditions of "Jarel is delightful to work with BUT..." on report cards. We've restricted/rewarded/cajoled. We've rolled our eyes, pulled our hair, and sobbed (okay, that one was me.)

BUT WE GRADUATED!!!!! Along with something like 600 other students, Jarel walked across the stage and got his fake diploma (what's that about?? "PSYCHE! you thought you graduated!") which he was able to trade after the ceremony for the REAL diploma--

And as we let out the breath we'd been holding all year, Jarel said, "See, I told you I was gonna be fine."