To call this last 31 hours a time of extreme ups and downs is probably an understatement.
Friday afternoon began with the arrival of Hannah and Grandma Jan back from London. For the first time in six months, all five kids were living and laughing under one roof as seen in the photographic evidence above.
Three hours later, Krystal walked up to the stage with 440 of her closest friends to close out her high school career. She graduated, passing her hardest class by a mere 0.033%. During the ceremony, a tornado tore across the lower half of Huntington County pausing the festivities for about five minutes while they sorted out if we were going to be target practice. Obviously, nothing happened and graduation commenced. At the end of the ceremony, we were greeted with the following double rainbow….
and then, the bottom fell out, 19 hours after that first picture…..
Hard feelings about boyfriends, expectations, and all sorts of fun changed our immediate plans of a nice Saturday afternoon graduation party. Krystal has decided to move back home with her mom, immediately. Now. A mere 16 hours after graduation, Krystal wanted to move home. A call from the police to yours truly (apparently fearing for their safety…whatever that means) and we were greeted with the following. No Party. No real goodbyes. Just hard feelings, hurt kids, and confused parents wondering how to explain this to the world.
I really wish I had something witty or wise to say right now, but it’s hard to get the right words together. Of course, DeAnn and I tried our best (and I feel succeeded) with our original plans, to get Krystal to graduate High School and to build some sort of relationship with her. And hopefully those things will live on, just in a different fashion.
In the chaos afterwards, Hannah and Emily have been spending hours (literally) discussing how they will repaint and redecorate Emily’s new room. I spent some time reflecting on what I did right and wrong as a dad, re-evaluating my biggest decisions, and then agreeing those were the right decisions back then and even now.
The chaos of time will diminish the pain and joy we felt this weekend. As a parent, we’re forced to sometimes make the hard decisions, the examples, and the consequences for behaviors which we think will hurt our kids in the long run. And it is the duty of our children to push those boundaries, and make us as parents decide what is right and wrong for our family.
I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, or two months from now. Right now, we all need time to get past the emotional crap that today unleashed and start to rebuild a new normal.
Congrats Krystal, we are proud of you finishing High School and we miss you. Good luck with your new life….
How Do You Spell That? 