Graduation

Graduation week

It was quite the week for Nathan and our family. It started off with a surprise visit from Danielle who came in to see him graduate. He has been asking for her a lot lately, so he was very excited when he found out she was here.

We went to rehearsal the day before and he did amazing. He stood up out of his wheelchair, walked half way across the stage and shook the Principal’s hand and turned to get to where his photo would be taken. After watching, Jay and I realized that put a lot of pressure on him for the day of. He would have been sitting there for quite some time and would of been more fatigued, so we decided to have them roll him to the middle and he could stand up, and then just sit back down.

Graduation Day
We had the most incredible weather (something I had prayed for a very long time as Colorado in May can be very unpredictable (6 inches of snow two days later). I arrived early to save seats and Jay brought Nathan. He joked when he got to our seats that he could barely get Nathan in because so many girls wanted their picture with Nathan 😀. He sat very patiently through the ceremony and then it was his turn to go up. With so much anticipation, he did exactly what we wanted. He STOOD up and was able to be recognized. It was a moment that literally took my breath away (and of course my brother got a video of me crying watching Nathan 😀). We are so incredibly proud of his accomplishment. We literally never knew if we would get to see this day. This is Nathan’s last real milestone and one that was so important to us to be able to see. The staff at Chaparral High School has played an instrumental role in Nathan’s life. We could not have asked for a better team for him. We are forever thankful to all of our family and friends who came to support Nathan and who have walked this journey along side of us and have held us up when we didn’t think we could go on.