Let Summer Begin

Another school year has come and gone and now we wonder what to do. It is amazing how fast a school year goes once it gets started, unfortunately, the summer flies by even quicker. The summer gives us the opportunity to rest, spend extra time with the boys and to decompress from the stresses of every day work life. While we love our jobs, the stresses can sometimes get you down. The students can be dysfunctional, the district can be demanding and the co-workers can be annoying (sometimes), but when the day is done, we put it behind us and gear up for the next day. Luckily, summer is a break from that routine.

On Tuesday, June 7th, we had to see our foreign exchange student for the last time for a while. What a rewarding experience it was to have her here with us for the year even though it was hard to say "see you later!" Our boys loved her and so did we, but we know that we can still keep in communication with her and will see her again down the road. We got to see her walk for graduation and so did her mom who flew in on the Friday before the ceremony. It was a shock to us though as we were notified of a change of plans! We were expecting to have Claudia with us until June 11th, but since her mom had flown in for the graduation, it was more practical for them to fly back to Italy together. We will always cherish the time we had with her and hope that she will be able to say the same.

Our boys finished up their school years by scoring at the top of their respective classes on their standardized testing. It is great that they all have a desire to learn and seem to be doing very well in the classroom. We hope they continue to desire more knowledge, but more than that, we pray that they will desire to follow Christ in their lives. Parker continues to amaze us with his musical talent and the other two keep us on our toes with their orneryness and comedy. We love having three distinctly different personalities, but sometimes it makes for a lot of squabbles. Well, we are hoping for a fun and relaxing summer and hope that all our friends can have the same.

Keep it real!
The Wideners