seventh semester

On February 15^th Matt and I will attend a scholars ceremony where our baby girl will receive her senior pin for seven semesters in a row of straight A’s.

I think of that proud moment in the future and remember…

An hour on my bed with flash cards trying to help her memorize the table of elements.

Matt quizzing her through list after list of current event questions.
Tears in the car because the CAD program in drafting seemed incomprehensible.
Hours of chemistry homework every night for a year.
Wondering if there would be a curve on a quiz.
Speech anxiety.
Hours of physics homework every night for a year.
Black circles under her eyes on the weekends.
School.  A snack.  At her desk studying until dinner.  Back to her desk until bedtime.

Somehow my girl mastered the day-after-day.

Matt and I sat on the living room floor last night.  Faces long.  Taking turns sighing with stress, listing the weight of responsibilities in just the next day.  So much to do.  We could use a lesson from our daughter in how to keep going. 

“The ransomed of the Lord will return.  They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”  Isaiah 51:11.

The seventh-semester pin for her. 

A crown of everlasting joy for us. 

But not without a few tears.  Hours and hours of work.  Dark circles under our eyes on the weekends.  Sighs of fatigue.  The crown doesn’t come until we have mastered the day-after-day.