Austin's Graduation

Saturday night, August 5th 2006, our oldest son Austin officially graduated from the 8th grade! We are so proud of him. The evening's program was as follows:

Opening song by Kelly's sisters and mother called "That's Just What He Is" sung accapella and beautifully so!Mandy Webster (aunt), Amy Guinn (aunt), Stacey Hedglin (aunt), and Cheryl Hibner (grandma) This is one of Austin's favorite songs. Aunt Amy said a few words about how sweet and tender of a heart the Lord has given Austin and how proud she is of him.

Then Austin and Joshua played "Unclouded Day" and Shawn (Dad) and Kelly (mom) sang.

Shawn then led everyone in prayer and thanked them all for coming.

Abby then played the song "Light of The World" on her violin.

Austin played a song on his guitar by Serene and Pearl (of Above Rubies) called "Child of Mine". Kelly (mom) sang and cried. This song sums up why I (Kelly) homeschool. This is the cry of my heart, the thing that keeps me going day after day.

Oh child of mine, the giver of life has given you to me...
oh child of mine the pages of your life we're yet read
and there's only so much I can do with the tiny gifts in my life
to lead you to the one who loves you like no other

CHORUS
Seek Him and find Him, fall fervently in love with Jesus
trust Him, and serve him, live every breath for what He teaches
Then He'll be close when I'm no longer there. That's your mother's prayer.

Oh child of mine, there are so many beautiful dreams I have for you
but oh child of mine, my greatest desire is that you would know the truth
Whatever you be, maybe a poet or a teacher or a king
will all be in vain, unless you're friends with One who died on the tree

CHORUS repeat

Then Shawn gave a few words about how he is proud of Austin, how at 13 in biblical times a boy was a man at this age. He used the following Scriptures to challenge Austin to "shew himself a man" in the next few years, and to seek wisdom. He also asked for the Lord to help him be a better father and example of a godly man in the next 13 years than he has been the first 13. I cried some more.

1 Kings 2:1 - 4
Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself: That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying,

If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with

all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he)

a man on the throne of Israel.

So then Shawn asked for me to come up on stage with him and then Austin to come up too and he presented Austin with his diploma. Group hug. :-) Then Shawn introduced Austin's very first public speech which was as follows:

(Austin typed it so he wouldn't forget anything.

He was SO nervous but it didn't show! He did great!)

Hi everybody... I'd like to thank you all for coming to my graduation.

It's been a busy summer for me. We've been working on our house and trying to get it fixed up, get the upstairs insulated, get the sewer and water hooked up and get the bathroom sheetrocked and trying to get our stove fixed. It's been busy. Have you ever had a cold shower? I mean right out of the hose at night? It's so cold that you just want to scream! This has been the most exciting summer of my entire life. Basically, as Dad would say, "Glorified camping." YEAH!

I've basically had a part-time job this summer. Our yard is 3 and a half acres almost and at one point we had to push mow most of it. Josh and I took turns until noon and then we'd stop for the day and start back up the next morning. I love to mow, but thank you Lord we have a rider now!

It's almost time to start my first year of high school and it will probably be the most exciting one so far. Homeschooling, I think, is a privilege. Not many people homeschool and I appreciate my Mom going through all the trouble of 13 years of training me. Homeschooling is 1000 times more fun than public school because whatever I want to learn about in a day, I can just do it! Like I have as long as I want pretty much to practice my guitar. I've learned alot about building, and learned a little bit about repairing bikes and mowers. To tell you the truth I don't know that much about mowers but I do know to let my Mom and Dad look at a mower before I buy it. I haven't had very good luck with lawnmowers this year.

I know just about everything there is know about rabbits. The most important tip I could share with you, is to make sure they are dead before you go to skin them. But they are great grilled!

I've been thinking alot about my future lately and things I want to do eventually. I heard about a Christian bootcamp in Texas. It's a 9 week program and it's basically like military basic training. At the end of the 9 weeks you have a choice to go into the ALERT academy and I'm giving serious thought to that. I 'm not sure what I want to do as a career yet, but I've been thinking about maybe going into landscape architecture and being a conservation volunteer. It's too bad that I can't haeverythinging my way because if I could then I'd be a landscape architect, a framer, and I'd be a conservationist all at once.

In this year through all the trials and difficulties that have come along the way, my faith has been built and I know more now than ever that I have to trust in the Lord to get through each day.

That's it. Shawn asked a prayer over the refreshments, said thank you again for coming and we dismissed to cake and pop with chips and veggie pizza. A wonderful night we will not soon forget. A "time of remembrance" for all of us.