Yesterday was Father’s Day in Guatemala, today is Father’s Day in the US. Yesterday, my son gave me the best Father’s Day gift I’ve ever received. It was a surprise to him on Saturday but I knew about it the day before. How can that be, you might ask?
On Friday morning, the director at John Edmund’s school started to text Jan and I about attending the graduation ceremony for the two 2017 graduates, neither of whom we know. There was more to those texts but be patient, I’ll get there eventually. He asked us to be there but not to tell John Edmund we were coming. We readily agreed.
It turned out that this small graduation (about 100 people attended) was the best and most moving graduation ceremony any of the three of us had ever seen. Because the graduating class was only two boys, almost anyone that might have wanted to speak, got their opportunity to do so. Because the school is an international school and teachers do come and go more than in a normal US school, these speeches included videotapes to the young men from former teachers in Spain, Canada and the US. Three of their current teachers talked about them, as did the school director, as did each of their mothers and fathers. The graduates themselves each got to say what they wanted us to hear including a song from one of the students and a poem from the other in both Spanish and English. Each boy presented flowers to his mother.
But none of that concerns the surprise gift (for him, because the teacher told us in the texts) my son gave to me yesterday. He was honored as the first ever recipient of the Atitlan Multicultural Academy (AMA) Volunteer of the Year award for his work with Information Technology at the school. It made Jan and I so very proud as you can see in this picture.
Thanks, son, for the best Father’s Day gift you could have given me!
I Love You!!!!!
