Two Graduates, Two Books, and a Thousand Reasons to Rejoice!

What an incredibly busy week, and season, this has been!

Tomorrow, both Christopher and Carri Beth are graduating, and our hearts are full!

Even a few years ago, we could hardly have pictured this day for Christopher. His development did not follow the normal pace or the typical path, and verbal communication was almost like a second language to him. But here we stand!

And his capstone project is the book we released this week on Amazon, Crossing the Chasm.

Even the journey of how this book came to be has been a God thing. Christopher and I talked many times about what his graduation capstone project should be. Each time, we considered different possibilities, but we could never quite settle on something that felt like the right expression of all God had done in and through his life. Finally, we decided that a book written together, telling both sides of our story, would be the best way to share that journey. But the first month or so of writing felt laborious. Somehow, we just weren’t quite finding our way.

Then one day, Carri Beth said, “You should just write it as letters to each other, like you did so much of his school.”

And suddenly, everything clicked!

Letters had been such a breakthrough in Christopher’s education—in his ability to write, to organize his thoughts, and even to communicate. We had discovered that he struggled to write unless he was speaking to someone. As he puts it, he needed to be writing to “someone besides the papers.” So we began writing letters to each other, telling our two sides of the same story. And what an incredible discovery and adventure that has been!

I learned things about Christopher that I had never known until he told me in his letters. And he discovered things about us, about the efforts we had made and the journey we had walked, that he had never understood before.

You presume so much. You think everyone knows. Until suddenly you realize that they don’t, and neither do you.

Somehow, in telling each other the stories we thought we already knew, we discovered how much there was still to learn about each other. And that is one of the most wonderful things about this entire journey.

Tomorrow is a celebration of God’s goodness, of miracles that have happened. Of a journey from isolation to connection, from silence to proclaiming a testimony, from the seemingly impossible to a future we once could scarcely imagine. And we are all rejoicing!

But Christopher isn’t the only graduate we are celebrating tomorrow! Carri Beth, as she puts it, is “continuing the legacy of learning.”

For her capstone project, she has written her own book, Pride Goes Before a Pinch: And Other Stories on Character, Choices, and Growing Up.

The book is a collection of stories she has built around true incidents from her own life and the lives of family and friends. Her desire is to inspire young readers to develop good character through the power of story, rather than making their own mistakes.

She has undertaken this project with gratitude and honor toward her parents and grandparents, who have all been involved in developing educational materials and curriculum, particularly for homeschooling families. In her own way, she is carrying that legacy forward. And so tomorrow, we celebrate her journey as well!

But one of the most beautiful parts of Carri Beth’s story is how much of herself she has given to her brother’s journey. Over the years, she has generously shared her time, her assistance, and even her mother’s time to help Christopher learn, grow, and reach this day.

And for me, it is beautiful that the suggestion that finally brought his book to life came from the sister who had already given so much to helping him find his way.

So we are delighted to celebrate these two graduates together, knowing how deeply their stories have been intertwined. Two graduates and two books! And one legacy of family, love, and learning.

Our hearts are filled with gratitude to God for all He has done!

You can read Christopher’s story in Crossing the Chasm, now available on Amazon. Here is the link:

https://a.co/d/009iVr8K