Our Graduate

 The 1st week of June, we put our baby on a plane back to the States, and we officially became empty nesters. Wow, what a journey. 

While we grieve the many opportunities that Ben missed out on by having 2 years of his high school career be online and under lockdown, we are so thankful for the things he was able to do in the last couple months of his senior year as things opened up a little here in the Philippines. He was able to play some intramural volleyball, practice & compete on a men's rugby team in town (they even won the tournament, & he got MVP!), have a senior banquet/prom, celebrate the first in-person graduation ceremony at his school since 2019, take a beach trip with his friends, and visit an orphanage on another island.

We were so proud of how Ben handled the many challenges of a covid lockdown highschool experience (the Philippines was the very last country in the world to prevent in-person classes, and even when they went back to school, only a tiny percentage of students here were actually allowed to be in-person!). It was a long, lonely time, but he showed incredible strength, and God worked in him in mighty ways through this difficult time. 

While we know Ben is a pretty awesome guy, academics are not his strength, so we weren't expecting him to win any big awards at graduation. However, we were so surprised when he won the top award (we had never known it to go someone who wasn't top tier academics). It's the "Senior Boy" award given to the top senior guy who most fully embodies the kind of student that Faith Academy wants to produce. We were so crazy proud of Ben when they called his name!

God has big plans for this guy, and, while we miss him like crazy, we can't wait to see what God is going to do through him in the years to come.