HI  Everybody,
        Well, I haven't written on this subject for a while, so I thought that I'd
give you guys an update.  Chris will be home in two weeks, like it or
not.  Our phone therapy session yesterday went pretty well, at
first.  Chris is discovering that he likes getting good grades.  He studies
because he has to spend a lot of time in his room and there aren't the
distractions there that there are here.  He was pretty pleasant.  The
therapist wishes that they could have more time with him, but there is no
money for that so, I guess, he will be coming home.
        We had talked to the therapist ahead of time about how things would change
once Chris came home and the session turned sour when the therapist urged
us into discussing those conditions.  He didn't mind too much about not
having a cell phone any more, but when he learned that his pay check would
be direct deposit from now on and that, for now at least, his savings
acount would be changed to a passbook savings account requiring both he and
Greg's permission before money could be withdrawn, he lost it.  Now the
therapist has two weeks to try to calm him down before he comes home.  He
is supposed to come home on the 18th, but that is the Friday before Palm
Sunday so we have asked if he could at least stay through Palm Sunday and
we pick him up then.  Partly, the reason that I want him to stay those
extra days is because, if he were to come home on that Friday, Greg would
work at the post office the next day leaving me alone with Chris his first
day home and I'm afraid of that.  The therapist has tried to reasure   me
that he has changed, but the groove in the record is dug too deep for me to
believe it without seeing it.
        Greg and I continue to work on finishing his room downstairs before he
gets home.  It's really going to llook nice.  Of course, I pray that he
appreciates it, but there is always the fear that, if he flies off the
handle, he'll trash it.  Can't you tell that I"m already getting stressed
out about his home coming?  Sorry about that.
        We've talked to another Christian school in the area run by Calvary
Chapel.  Greg knows the pastor there.  We've given them the low down on
Chris and they have agreed to interview him when he gets back to Bangor and
decide whether or not they will take him for at least one marking period so
that Chris can continue to comply with the requirements of his probation,
one of which is to stay in school.  They're basically going to lay it on
the line with him.  They see him at a crossroads right now.  If he wants to
strive toward a godly life, they'd love to help him, but they aren't
interested in dealing with rebellion.  If Chris went back to Bangor
Christion, where our other two children are, I don't know what would
happen.  He was expelled from there two years ago and he has failed so many
classes in the past two years that he would have to be placed with the
freshmen still and that probably wouldn't be pretty.  He is okay with the
idea of not going back to his old highschool and he is saying, while he is
at Cromwell at least, that his latest round of friends weren't good for
him.  I just pray that he will keep that perspective once he gets home.
        Greg and I had toyed with the idea of letting him know that his instant
messaging would be monitered, but we decided that that, along with tapping
his phone conversations, we would keep to ourselves still.  It's probably
just as well considering how he handled the money issues.  Who knows, maybe
he really has changed and is really glad for a new start.  Maybe I'm just
running from a history that we all wish that we could forget.  If so, then
I'm sorry for not sounding as though I have more hope.  I'm just trying to
remain realistic and not be overly optimistic.
        If we can make it through the next seven months, and help Chris to become
an independent adult, it will be wonderful.  Even the therapist yesterday
said that she thinks that Chris is going to be the next pastor in the
family.  I can't believe how many people have said that to us.  I just pray
that he will truly repent and fall so head over heels in love with Jesus
that he'll have no desire to look back.
God bless,
Kathy
Always for His glory