The Senior Project

The Teen is so lucky, after all she has older siblings.  We’ve parented thorough high school before, we know what we’re doing!  We know the pitfalls and the tricky passages, except…. we moved… to a different state… where the ‘Senior Project’ is required for graduation and we know nothing!  It was a brief but interesting spot to be in….both The Teen and The Parents agreed… The Parents really did not know anything!  We were all in trouble!

The Teen decided to write a two act play about her life, and there is plenty of material for this play.  (Wow, to The Parents, this sounded hard.)  The Adviser approved the project.  The Teen even started it…. it was really hard…it brought up a lot of stuff… The Teen got stuck… and my favorite comment from The Teen, “What was she (The Adviser) thinking?  She should have never approved this project!”

So began phase two of The Senior Project…. by this time, I’d spent a bit of time with The Quilting Ladies and was completely caught up with either:

1. How grateful they were that The Senior Project started after their kids graduated or

2. How much easier their child’s Senior Project would have been, if they could have gotten their child to make a quilt.  Which is when the ‘light bulb’ went on in my head.

After a bit of convincing, encouraging and ‘you’ve got to trust me on this one’, The Teen was cleared by The Adviser to change projects to making a quilt.  I think the thing that finally convinced her was when I reminded her, that I didn’t really know anything about quilting, so I wouldn’t be helping her or telling her what to do, so she was ‘safe’ from my parental input.

When The Teen was a little girl, the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child” came into popularity.  Truth beyond words for this child, we/she’d never be where she is today without the invaluable help, assistance, caring and prayers from a large village (and you know who you are…)  In stepped phase two of ‘the village’ in the form of The Quilting Ladies.  What a joy for me to watch as my child was loved over, helped and encouraged by every woman there.  Ladies that stopped the projects that they were working on to assist her in every step of The Senior Project.  Sometimes they came to quilting, just to make sure The Teen had the help she needed.  She had to re-sew it so many times, I think she sewed the equivalent of three quilts and she had to trim it so often, that at one point I was worried that it might become a place mat.

What a blessing to watch her loved on by ladies that love to sew/quilt.  The Teen’s grandma was a wonderful seamstress and The Teen missed out on sharing that with her, but The Quilting Ladies gave her their sweet version of their loving gift and saw her through.  Also The Quilting Ladies got to experience The Teen’s sweet heart, as she bowled them over (often literally) with her hugs.

The Senior Project was completed in the nick of time and its blessing will continue as it is donated to a foster child in the county.  Did The Teen turn into a master quilter ready to do another one… ah, I don’t think so… did she learn once again that there is a large contingent of God’s people ready and willing to walk the walk with her…definitely!….and I am grateful.