Vacation.....

I love our annual trips to Oregon. This year we have added an extra week to our trip; along with the added time, we have added several special visits and plans. Our pre-dawn dash Saturday brought us here in time for the graduation ceremony of Miss Autumn Rain.



If I cry for the graduations of my friends and adopted nieces, what will I do at the graduation of my own children? Get stock in Kleenex is my recommendation. The graduation was beautiful, and I am so proud of her achievements and her plans for the future.

The rest of our weekend was spent at Gutenberg College and with friends who work there. This was our first college visit with our children's futures in mind. We have followed the work at Gutenberg from its inception; we've supported our friends' work there, we have visited them on our Oregon trips and talked about how Gutenberg is doing, but this was different. This time I was Mom. I looked at those dorm rooms with eyes that could see my beautiful and serious daughter reading and wrestling with ideas at that window, behind that desk, on those overstuffed chairs. We talked with one of the tutors after church on Sunday, we had lunch with other members of staff and the board, and we definitely felt like we got to know a lot more about how to prepare a student for success there. Our daughter loves the Great Books, and she has always found the program details to be right up her alley, but she had a good look at the facility this visit. She loved the idea of cooking in the huge kitchen and working in the vegetable garden in the backyard. Living in a city would be a huge change for her, but that patch of country in the backyard made her country heart sing.



Now we are basking in the pleasure of deep friendships with A Learning Life, The Autumn Rain, and Lavender and Old Lace. We brought the heat with us, but time spent swimming in the creek, sitting in the shade to chat, plunking sleeping bags on the back lawn and storytelling way too late all seem to be making the heat have a feel of adventure in it. Tomorrow we're going to ditch the whole group of them and head to the coast for a celebration of twenty years of marriage. TWENTY YEARS! TWENTY YEARS!

What a blessed woman I am.