Oh Happy Day

My daughter graduated from The Ohio State University last Sunday and it was a very happy day for both of us.  The ceremony forspring graduation is always held in the football stadium because it's theonly place large enough to hold everyone.  Here is a picture of the outside.

The stadium has some lovely stained glass windows at the entrance whichwere best enjoyed on this day from the inside.

Here are the students marching into the stadium.  They graduated 9,700students this quarter which is a staggering number if you think about it.  Campus is really like a small town within the city of Columbus witharound 40,000 students which doesn't include the satellite campuses.

Here is a picture of about half of the students graduating.

The raising of the American flag.

Here are the students picking up their diplomas.  Ohio State is one ofthe few large universities that still graduates all of its individual schools andpasses out each actual diploma in one ceremony ~ which is why it isa 2-1/2 hour ceremony.My camera was acting up for these last few photos, so the quality and coloris not very good.

And here is my daughter, Kate ~ the happy graduate.

As I sat in the stadium surrounded by proud families and students, I couldn'thelp but shed a few tears at how quickly time passes and our childrengrow up.  My daughter had a pretty turbulent time in college due to acombination of bad personal choices and heavy class loads.  All I coulddo as I sat there was give thanks to God that she made it through infour years, was receiving a diploma, and neither of us has anycollege debt.  There were days when I didn't think either of us were going to survive her college years.  I felt overwhelmed by the goodness and grace of Godto have brought us to this happy day.~Linking with~The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays~