Hi guys,
        Well, our visit with Chris was uneventful this afternoon.  His
girlfriend's mother and grandmother did show up, but not the girl
herself.  It was just strange.  You see, where we visit,, it is a room with
tables that can seat four people.  Right now, with Chris being only
detained, he can only be visited by his legal guardians, which means
us.  There isn't supposed to be any mingling among the tables, but Chris
has already made it clear that if his girl shows up, he will find it hard
to restrain himself.  It isn't worth it to point out that that is how he
got in trouble in the first place.  Men and their raging hormones!!  Honestly!!
        Anyway, I wrote, and sent a special letter to him today, that is pretty
hard hitting.  He will probably get it on Monday or Tuesday.  Would you
please pray that he at least read it all the way through?  Don't worry,
we've been writing to him almost every day, but this letter is different
because it is pretty blunt about my feelings of parenting him over the past
four years.  It also, pretty much, closes the door to the possibility of
his coming home unless we see some real change.  Please pray that he will
read this letter all the way through.  Also, I have asked him to
respond.  He claims that he has a lot of time on his hands so why not.  I'm
hoping that we will finally get a lot of things on the table that need to
be dealt with without the emotional baggage that so often happens when
trying to have a conversation face to face.
        Also, we have applied for a court appointed lawyer.  If we don't get one,
we will have to pay for the lawyer ourselves.  How's that for an ironic
twist, the plaintiffs paying for the defendant's lawyer.  anyway, we have
talked with a lawyer that we do know.  He used to be the principle at
Bangor Christian when Chris attended there and he gave us a lot of good
advice.  He said that if Chris pleads guilty that a court appointed lawyer
will do fine, but if Chris wants to plead "not guilty," we will have to
hire a lawyer  for  ourselves and for chris. Yes, that is two
lawyers.   Also, the lawyer that we talked too said that with Greg being a
pastor, the judge will pretty much already be prejudiced against Chris
because we have nothing to gain personally if Chris is found guilty.  In
fact, it may end up looking bad for us in the community.  I don't think so
in our case.  Our church has been pretty supportive, but you never know
what the fringe gossips will make of this.  It's such a juicy
morssel!  Anyway, I am praying that we can convince Chris to simply plead
guilty.  I think that it will go better for us all around if he does,
including a lighter sentence for him.  You guys, a fiction writer couldn't
have made life more strange for me right now.
        Of course, our main prayer is that Chris will grow in Christ.  He tells us
that he has learned his lesson; that he never wants to be back in jail
again, but his reasons for not repeating are more external at present, they
do not appear to come from a truly repentent heart.  Well, I keep reminding
myself that he is only 17.  Where there is breath there is hope.
Happy pentecost Sunday everybody!  What a wonderful gift to celebrate!
God bless,
Kathy