Kameron Graduates From High School!

On Tuesday May 25th, Kameron officially graduated from Skyview High School! We have grieved the end of his high school career not looking like anything we had ever imagined or expected. His school has been wonderful and understanding. They made this part of the process as painless as possible on him. He missed Prom, his Graduation Parade, finals, grad night, etc due to his cancer treatments. We had a direct point of contact at the school who kept us in the loop with expectations of graduation since Kam would be missing a lot of the critical information. They made sure he walked towards the beginning of graduation so he'd be able to participate, despite it putting them out of alphabetical order. They've been amazing to our whole family. We will miss Skyview and its wonderful teachers and staff fiercely. They've loved us well and been compassionate when we needed them to show up. His teachers have checked on him occasionally. And they continue to let us know how very much they care for Kameron. 

When Kameron was adopted 5 1/2 years ago, we went to a fancy jade jeweler in Kunming City, China and bought him a piece of jade. We were told there that this was a Chinese tradition (at least, in the province of Yunnan) that parents give their child a piece of jade when they graduated high school or college, got married, etc. It marks a monumental occasion. So just before Kameron's graduation, he received that piece of jade we'd bought for him. It was a special moment. 

Kameron had a big showing of his tribe at graduation. Many members of mom's family, Jesse's mother, and friends showed up in big numbers. He had people in various states following graduation virtually and cheering him on from afar. He was happier than I've seen him in months! He'd made it. There were tense moments leading up to it with difficult to control nose bleeds, chest pain (don't worry-- he was worked up and all is well), and moments of not feeling well that had us questioning if this would even be a reality for him. What we know about Kam is, he has tremendous amounts of grit. Of course he made it. 

Kameron graduated with honors and a GPA > 3.5. He has worked so hard overcoming a language barrier, learning a whole new language and culture, while maintaining his fluent Mandarin. We couldn't be prouder of him.