Matt's Graduation

My brother and I have come a long way since we first met in 1992. I'm sure parts of this story are wrong, but it's now my 5-year-old mind remembers it. I remember driving around with my dad one Friday night. I was a couple of months away from my 6th birthday. Back then Mom worked at the family restaurant on the weekends so Friday nights were reserved for daddy/daughter adventures like 4-wheeling in the woods way past dark (getting the 4-wheeler stuck and having to walk back across my grandpa's property to the highway), going to lay corn for the deer out by the tree stands at the hunting club so Dad and Papa could hunt in a few days, wading in Little River watching out for moccasins (still don't remember why we were doing this, but I'm sure we had a good reason...)... the list could go on and on.

But I digress. This particular Friday night was different. Dad and I had just left a football game and were driving home in Dad's pest control truck. This was before the age of cell phones, so all the pest control trucks had two-way radios in them--you know, the kind where you say "10-4" and "over and out". All of a sudden, my Uncle Kent came over the radio and told Dad not to ask any questions, but to get home as soon as possible. Of course we sped home thinking something terrible had happened to Mom (I don't know if Dad was thinking that, but I sure was). When we got home, Kent and my cousins were there. Kent told Dad something about an important phone call. Then I remember Dad looking at Kent, getting teary-eyed and saying "Brother VanComen?" I had never met "Brother VanComen", but I knew that he was always mentioned in the same sentence as "adoption" and "waiting". When you adopt through LDS Social Services (I think it's called LDS Family Services now? And I'm sure the process has probably changed in the past 18 years) most everything goes through your church Bishop. And since Kent was the Bishop at the time, he had gotten the call first. Dad went inside and got on the phone while we all waited out in the front yard. Not sure why we didn't go inside..

All my memories after that are just a blur of excitement. I remember that Dad really didn't fill me in on anything until we were in the truck on the way to Mom at the restaurant. Then he told me that I was getting a baby brother THE NEXT DAY and we had to drive to Orlando to get him. I remember crying. I think I was crying for a few reasons (1) I didn't know what I was going to do with a little brother after being an only child for almost 6 years and (2) I was SO EXCITED!!! When we got to the restaurant, somebody told us Mom was out back. I remember walking with Dad down the ramp to tell Mom and all of a sudden Dad started running when he saw her. He must have told her then, I couldn't hear. All I remember at that point was Dad hugging Mom so tightly, lifting her off her feet, and her burying her head in Dad's chest crying with excitement. I remember that part sort of in slow motion, like you would remember the scene of a movie. I'm probably romanticizing it in my head, but hey, I was 5. And I remember it as a magical moment.

Like I said, Matt and I have come a long way since the 90's, but it has been so much fun. Eighteen 1/2 years later we have grown up a lot. A couple weeks ago he graduated from Seminary and High School. So proud of you Matt!

Here's Dad throwin up gang signs at Seminary graduation.

I was supposed to be on bed rest, but I figured I could go to my brother's high school graduation right?? Wrong. I landed myself in Labor and Delivery the next day because of this decision, but at least I saw him graduate! Before graduation we went to dinner. I planned on taking more pictures, but my camera was running low on battery :(

We (jokingly.... kinda) told Matt it was alright he didn't graduate Summa Cum Laude.... because he graduated Summa Cum Lucky. Four years of high school/seminary down. I wonder what the next 4 years will bring?