Matthew's Graduation

I know, I know. I have almost fallen off of the blogger radar screen. What can I say? I've had a busy month that included two weeks up at my parents' in Wisconsin. It was so nice to be home, and Luke grew even closer to his cousins. He was sad when they left to go back to Minnesota. "Where did my cousins go?" he would say.

Luke's also given me quite the run for my money, getting into all manner of mischief. I made my first call to the Poison Control Center. That was a barrel of laughs. And Luke went around for an entire day with shimmery white nail polish on his face. He looked like he had war paint on.

On April 18, my parents and grandma flew to Columbia, South Carolina for Matthew's graduation from Basic Training with the Army. It was a great weekend. We were so happy that Matthew's graduation went as planned, considering the serious questions we had for about a week. If you didn't read about it on Janelle's blog, here's a quick recap of Matthew's excitement:

On Thursday night, April 5, Matthew was on his bunk reading letters from home, when a few guys started teasing and taunting him about his convictions and faith regarding sex and morality. Matthew has a lot of friends who respect his faith, but there's always a few who like to run their mouth, I guess. Apparently, Matthew was getting pretty annoyed that night, and the next thing he knew, it was the next morning - Good Friday - and he was in the hospital with a concussion and 6 stitches in the back of his head. He had no memory from the night before, and didn't know what exactly caused his injuries. He was obviously worried that he did something that would jeopardize his graduation. He couldn't reach any of his sergeants, because his platoon had left that morning for a 6-day field exercise. Matthew was able to call home several times that day, until a nurse told him he wasn't allowed to use the phone anymore. The last we heard from him, he was dressed and waiting to leave the hospital. He was assuming he would be taken to his platoon out on the field. We were praying that this would happen, so he could graduate on time. We didn't hear from him again for 9 whole days! It was horrible not knowing what was going on, but we assumed that since we hadn't heard, he must've joined his platoon and would be graduating on time. When he finally called on Sunday, the 15th, we found out that Matthew did get into a bit of a wrestling match with the guy and put him in a head lock. Another guy came up from behind and put his head inbetween Matthew's legs, lifting him up into the air. He fell back, and his head hit the concrete floor. Matthew doesn't remember any of this. When Matthew rejoined his platoon, everyone was really nice to him, including the "offender." The sergeant threatened that the entire group wouldn't graduate for what happened, but in the end, it was just a threat. One of Matthew's closest friends in basic, another Christian, took the blame for what happened and could've been disciplined himself. He told Matthew that he shared his beliefs too and was sorry that he hadn't stood up for Matt more.

Now Matthew is in training (AIT) and will be coming home some time in July probably. He is able to have his cell phone, so I can talk to him every few days, or sometimes every day. I'm so proud of him. Enjoy these pics from his graduation weekend. :)





Matt in front of his locker. I do believe that's Luke's Christmas picture on the mirror! Awe.



Matt's bay - I think that's what they call it. The big shiny rectangle painted on the middle of the floor is called the "no kill" zone, or something like that. Under no circumstances is anyone to touch it - it's a discipline issue. Ironically, Matthew fell into that "zone" when he got hurt. Blood was everywhere!




"House of Pain" Kinda ironic.






Graduation





Now this Matthew is more familiar to me! He's gained 15 pounds. Pure muscle, no doubt!