We're headed out to graduation

It's hard to believe but we are headed out to Monarch for the last time. Its just two months shy of two years since Josh went away, and now he is coming home!

As much as the first few months seemed to crawl by, the last few have flown by. And since for a while Josh has been able to come home to visit every 5 or 6 weeks, it hasn't been as painful to have him away at school. And, of course, as we've watched him grow and mature, we've become more and more convinced that the decision to send him to Monarch was a good one. The school's not perfect but by and large we have had a great experience and I know Josh would say the same.

The one thing I don't really understand (and couldn't get a great answer from the school) is why they have graduation at the end of April instead of the end of May, when other schools have theirs. It means that Josh would come home and have nothing to do and no one to do it with, since all of his friends will still be in school. Seemed to us like a recipe for falling back into his old ways if he had too much time on his hands. So we went to the high school where he will do his senior year and asked if he could come to school for the last six weeks of junior year...not for credit, which he doesn't need and couldn't get, but just to have something to do and somewhere to go...a way to add structure to his day.

At first they said that they didn't didn't have kids register for school when there wasn't enough time left in the semester to get credit ( but it is a public high school and they can't deny him, right?) ...but when we exlained the situation they were great about it and have set up a special plan to reintegrate him into school life. ...so Tuesday morning at 8:00 he will return to our local high school for the rest of the semester. He'll also start driver's Ed in the evenings so I guess he'll be pretty busy.