my pride is showing

This morning I attended a mass led by Bishop Rhoades at Bishop Dwenger High School.  Not my usual kind of worship service (being Presbyterian) but I was there for a very good reason.  In addition to hosting a visiting bishop, the purpose of the mass was to announce the recipient of this year's Bishop Dwenger Teacher of the Year award.  At this school the teacher of the year is nominated by her students and her fellow treachers and I am delighted to announce that this year the award winner is my daughter-in-law,  She's the French teacher and has done an amazing job of building the French program there.  Among other things she has developed an exchange program with a teacher in France to bring about twenty French students here for a couple of weeks each fall and to take a group of her students to France for a couple of weeks each spring.  I knew about this of course but was dazzled by the long list of other attributes the principal listed in making the announcement.  She made it through her acceptance speech smoothly until she spotted a couple of her senior French students sitting in the front row beaming at her, then she got a little teary.  By the way, the monetary reward was more than enough to buy a special pair of shoes she's been wanting.  She does love her shoes.  All in all a very satisfying reward for work well done.