Congratulations to my daughter, the graduating senior!

(left to right) My son, me, my daughter and my wife after graduation

Friday night, May 25, 2007 marked the end of a long and amazing journey for my daughter as she graduated from high school. The road for her was not as easy at is for many. You see, she was born with learning disabilities associated with auditory processing and speech / language issues. If you had a regular conversation with her, you might not ever pick up on it, but if you got into deeper or more abstract subject matter, it would become increasingly apparent. Imagine going to school amongst a peer group every day where your communication skills were about 70% of age level, and that's what she faced every day. When she was 4, many of the so-called "experts" to told us she would never make it in a regular school, much less graduate on time (if ever). We refused to believe that. Through years of prayer and hard work, and meeting after meeting with her teachers and counselors to make sure she was on task, she not only ended up graduating in regular mainstream classes with her senior class (even making the honor roll with all A's and B's one semester), but she lettered for 3 years on her high school drill team, a difficult task to even make the team. I tell people all the time my daughter is a hero to me. No words will ever be able to adequately express how proud we are of her.