Olivia's Graduation Pictures

This is Olivia at 18 years old.  Who'd a thought she'd grow up?  And on top of that, she'd grow up to become so beautiful inside and out! Of course, I'm just a little partial.

It makes my heart sing to see this picture.  I can honestly say that these two really enjoy each other.  Even though Anthony is 2 1/2 years younger, he is like a big brother in a way.  He is a confident guy and isn't afraid to protect his sister if need be.  I'll never forget when he expressed his concern about her riding her bicycle alone and he decided to go with her.

This table was so much fun for me to help Olivia put together.  We decided to stick with 4 subjects that describe her the best.  Photography on the left, music in the middle, first aid (emergency stuff) on the right and thought provoking quotes throughout.  Olivia loves these 4 things a lot!

Olivia's original cake that we ordered is below.  She loves green and orange and picked chocolate for the cake and frosting.  Then we discovered that over 100 people had RSVP'd!  So I went out the day before the graduation and picked up the white cake above and had them put her name on it.

This picture is of Olivia when she was 3 months old with a stack of her favorite books.

Micah and Will played with these guns during the whole graduation in the front row!  It was a bit tricky keeping them quiet but I'm glad they had fun.

Decorations that we borrowed.  Absolutely loved these things.  They added so much to our 150 year old church dining hall.

 Sisters and the best of friends.  I'm so thankful I have two girls.  They are 4 years apart but have shared a room almost their whole lives.  Julia has a very hard time thinking about Olivia ever living away from her.  It will be interesting to see what the future holds. I have a feeling that they will always be close.

My wonderful hubby who pulled off his speech the morning of.  He never prepares much in advance. I'm so jealous that he can do that and do it well.  

Me, on the other hand, prepared what I wanted to say weeks in advance and kept revising it over and over.  Then I got up there and kind of second guessed my plans and skipped over parts of it thinking our guests weren't that interested.  Funny how a bunch of faces staring at you can influence you.

Pictures of the crowd.

 Olivia and Julia played a duet of Glorify Thy Name and I Love You, Lord.  No one was leading the singing but everyone began singing along.  This brought tears to my eyes.  I was struck with what a beautiful group of friends we have that love Jesus and were showing their love for Olivia.  It was one of those moments I will never forget.

Olivia surprised me and got up in front of everyone and shared her testimony with no notes.  She just shared her story of how God revealed himself to her and how much he has impacted her life.

Proud Mommy moment!

 Olivia wrote a song called You Are My Everything.  Sarah, who is playing piano, put it to music.  I thought it was only fitting that Olivia sing it for the first time publicly at her graduation.

Julia paid a tribute to Olivia and she didn't cry!  She is a very cute 13 year old, I must say.

These 4 sang, O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.

 So these two really blew me away.

Anthony wrote a funny skit giving the graduate advice.

Throughout the week leading up to her graduation, he kept running it by me.  I wasn't sure if it would turn out very funny or if the audience would get his jokes or not.

But once they got up there and started in, they were just darling together, acting out their parts and just having fun up there.  

 They really cracked themselves up which was so entertaining to watch!

Lastly, we presented Olivia with her diploma.  

These pictures are so sweet.  Michelle is a friend and co-worker of Rich's.

One of my best friend's daughter is Lydia Schulz.  She has developed a sweet friendship with Olivia.

More pictures of her table.

Olivia is really into this right now and is looking into becoming EMT certified.

She literally lights up whenever an ambulance or fire truck drives by.

You know your child has an interest in something specific when they read EMT textbooks in their spare time!

The food line.  I love the decorations hanging from the ceiling in these pictures.

More friends and guests.  Dear, dear people who have been instrumental in Olivia's life and my own, for that matter.

Little Levi and Esther getting a good look at each other.

Olivia and Faith have a love for the medical world in common not to mention they seem to have similar personalities! It will be fun to see what doors God opens for these two in the future.

I love the way Emily is hanging on her mother's shoulder.

My Mother and Father-in-law serving punch and coffee together.  What a cute pair!

You have to speak up when talking to my Father-in-law.  I can just hear him asking loudly, "Huh?  You want more?  or No?"

Levi was on his own a bit with all these people.  Looks like he was having fun looking at the people outside.

These two girls are sisters.  Hope in the picture above and Faith in the picture below.  Aren't they pretty?  Faith took all these pictures for us and I'm so grateful I have a detailed account of the whole day.

Pictures of the whole family.  It was so wonderful to have both my parents and Rich's parents fly out to be here to see Olivia graduate.  Even one of Rich's sister's was able to come!  We felt very loved and supported.

I can't imagine celebrating this special day and not having my parents attend.  I'm so glad they were able to make it.

This is Olivia's true personality!

I'm so pleased that we chose to make a big deal out of Olivia's high school graduation.  We could have celebrated in a variety of ways but this just seemed fitting.  Olivia and I had a blast planning everything that it really wasn't a big head ache.  It could have been stressful for me since I'm not a big party thrower but it wasn't.  God really showed up for this one.  Olivia will remember this forever and that is what I'd hoped for.

Olivia has begun her own blog and needs some followers.  If you are interested in it go to
servantoftheking95.blogspot.com

Kristin Lodi