Kathy, that's wonderful you had a great vacation.

I'm praying for the situations with Chris. Always praying for you and your
family.

Please keep us posted.

Love and Blessings,
Pat Ferguson
At 12:23 PM 8/24/05, you wrote:
>Hi Guys,
>         Well, I"m back to stay now.  My weekend was a really good one, a
>gift from God.  I was able to leave everything behind and just enjoy
>my music and fellowship with other Christian women.  No calling at
>midnight to make sure that Chris is home or anything.  It was truly wonderful.
>         In 69 days, chris turns 18, but we have no idea what that means.  He
>has been violating the conditions of his probation, especially
>playing fast and loose with curfew.  He has missed a few counselling
>appointments and his girl friend supplies him with cigarettes.  He
>was smoking them in his room, but I think that we have made that
>uncomfortable enough for him so that he either goes in the back yard
>or does it at her house.  By the way, her parents buy the cigarettes
>for her so we can't expect any help from that direction.
>         A few times now, Chris has picked up rides from strangers.  When he
>gets in the car he learns that these men are gay.  They have all
>propositioned him.  I guess that the bike rout that he chooses to
>take home is dubbed, "pickle alley."  Chris always stops by the
>bridge there to relieve himself and that's how he is spotted.  Of
>course, they bring him home which means that people are learning
>where we live.  I fear mostly for Caleb, in case any of these guys
>are of the NAMBLA crowd which makes me very uncomfortable letting him
>play in our front yard.  The probation officer went on vacation,
>without telling us, and won't be back until next week so we just have
>to wait and pray until we can report this stuff.  Chris thinks that
>he is invinsible, so, of course, any talk of the danger that he is in
>is ignored.
>         He has a job now, working at the same pizza-ria that his girl friend
>works at, just to keep life interesting.  He thinks that he will save
>up to move out on his own, which would be fine with us, but we don't
>know what the probation officer will say.  We have to wait on that
>one too.  However, so far, Chris has managed to save nothing and he
>still owes us money.  I smell more turbulance brewing somewhere in
>the distance.  A lot of his money has been going for cab fair.  He
>calls a cab, puts the bike in the trunk and goes to town.  Then, we
>aren't sure how often, but he takes a cab   to somewhere near our
>house and then takes the bike out and rides the rest of the way
>home.  He tried telling us that he was tired and that that is why he
>is late, but the truth is that, if he takes the cab, he can stay with
>Nicki longer.  A ride, one way, from Glenburn to Bangor is
>$15.  Brother.  Nicki has demonstrated to us that she is willing to
>lie and cover for him.  This past Sunday, he was more than a half
>hour late.  We called her house and she told us that he had left
>about a half hour earlier and that he thought that his curfew had
>been changed to 1:00 am.  In truth, Chris was still at her house,
>while we were talking on the phone.  Greg went out to look for him,
>thinking that something was wrong, but when he saw a cab go by, Greg
>figured out the truth, but Chris won't admit to it.
>         The vacation out to Michigan was a really nice break for the four of
>us.  We took the kids to the beach on Lake Michigan.  There is
>nothing quite like the feel of Lake Michigan sand.  It's almost like
>powdered sugar and it is very deep.  We took Caleb to his first trip
>to the zoo.  We toured a Children's muzeum and spent a day at Fort
>Michila Macinac.
>         My parents 60th anniversary celebration was so great.  It was so
>cool to hear all my siblings talk about how great my parents
>are.  Even my big brothers couldn't keep from breaking down and
>crying when they talked about life in our house growing up.  Uh, I
>mean that in a positive way.  GRIN!   Every single one of us stood up
>and gave thanks that we had been raised in a Christian
>household.  Some of the grand children testified to how my dad
>stepped in as the father figure when my sisters' marriages
>failed.  Afterwords I just kept thinking about how close I came to
>missing everything because I almost chose to stay back in Maine
>because of Chris.  The night before the celebration, Chris had been
>out until 2:00 am and we eventually had to contact Nicki's mother at
>work to go out and look for him.  Nevertheless, I am so thankful to
>the Lord that I was there.  It was truly wonderful!
>         Now, it is back to the grind stone of life as I know it in
>Maine.  Thanks for your prayers and your care.
>God bless,
>Kathy