Graduation

Guess what?  A post that isn't about the boys!

I FINALLY finished practicum and managed to CLEP the one remaining course I needed for my degree.  This was a special day for me, considering that almost a year ago I was in the ICU recovering from a heart attack and an appendectomy.  I didn't really expect this to hit me, since I wasn't emotional at my high-school graduation and I've interpreted several other graduations since, and I was fine through the whole graduation ceremony (even when the friend sitting with my parents blew an air horn when they had the summa cum laude graduates stand to be recognized), but when we processed back out and there were all of our faculty lining the pathway we had to walk back to the disrobing location, and they were applauding for us, I started crying.  Really, that's why my nose is so red in the photo and I look like I'd had a little too much wine too early in the day. 

These pix show the people who made it all possible.

Top: Oldest Son (Rick) and ChinaBoi (Charlie). They have both supported me and made it possible for me to go to classes in all the little ways that add up to so much--taking care of my dogs after work on nights when I've had to go straight from work to class, cooking me dinner when it looked like I would come home from a late-night class and go straight to bed without eating at all, and forgiving me when I didn't have enough energy to keep up with both work and school and still be supermom.

Bottom: My parents, who financed my education even though I'm a little long in the tooth and should be able to stand on my own two feet financially by now. Finances have been so tight since the adoption that I would NEVER be standing here in this stupid hat if they had not provided the funds (and the encouragement) to get this done.

I think it's finally time to rest and spend some quality time with the boys.