Graduation Day!

A momentous day today. Melissa graduated from high school! After Honduras, Wasatch Academy was such a blessing for her. She really got to shine. In fact, she received an award for being so coachable and with such a great spirit for her school. All the teachers and administrators we talked to just love her and her contributions. We really are proud of her! It was an emotional day for her. Excited about her accomplishments, ready to just be done and out of there, going to miss friends, uncertain about the future. We're just glad we could be there with her.

We got to Mt. Pleasant, Utah yesterday evening and had dinner with Melissa in the dining hall. Then we enjoyed fine arts performances. Liz and Jacob drove down from Rexburg and joined us there. Melissa excelled in 2 dance numbers. Then Liz got permission to stay with Melissa in her dorm room, and Jacob slept on the floor of our motel room.

Oh, yeah! I forgot to blog last night! I missed a day. Too much excitement late into the evening, I guess.

Today we enjoyed the baccalaureate and a brunch, followed by the graduation ceremony. They had a guest speaker from India, a scholar and inspirational speaker. For each student, they said how long they've been at the school, where they were from, where they will going after this, and a brief quote from an instructor. For Melissa, they insist on saying that she is from Honduras, but the principal didn't say "Tegucigalpa." I think he was afraid of mispronouncing it. Again, they said nice things about Melissa and her infectious enthusiasm.

After graduation, we drove to Provo and had dinner at Bombay House, an Indian restaurant, with Chris, Stacie, and Chelsea Gardner; Don, Jeannine, Hillary Whittaker (and Hillary's friend); Liz and Jacob; and our former-intern-in-Honduras friends, Joseph and Andrea. It was a great way to celebrate.

Now it's off to bed, so we can go to church with Jeannine in the morning, then drive to Rexburg again.