The Lord is Our Shield

Here's the latest update on our situation and it is truly a case of the Lord's protection. While it is not over yet, the situation has turned far better than we could have imagined. We were able to retain the lawyer and the Lord has worked miracles. Via a phone conversation with the DA our lawyer told us that it would most likely be upwards of $5000 in fines and probably a year and a half of probation. So then, a day or so later our lawyer got everything together and actually went to the DA's office to finalize everything and the DA said that he actually looked further into the case (somethiing he rarely, if ever, does) and concluded that this was most likely an honest mistake (which it was) and that if we could come up with about $3100 in fines by the end of October there would be no probation AND he would reduce the charge from a Class 3 Felony to a Misdemeanor (traffic violation) AND we would not have to travel to Abilene to resolve it. PRAISE GOD!!!

Oh wait- you're probably wondering what the actual charge was! (We weren't sure for a long time) The actual warrant was issued for 'Tampering with Government Records" which is a Class 3 (read 'very bad') Felony. We were on Food Stamps in Abilene and one of the times that we had to report our income I had forgotten to note that Michael was teaching at ACU, I had only mentioned his weekend job at Michaels Arts & Crafts. (Probably one of those times when I'm filling out the form, and then something happened with the kids and when I returned to filling out the form I just moved onto the next line! So totally accidental- in fact, usually Michael filled out the forms, so this was just an odd turn of events from the very beginning!). So we find it rather strange that a federal felony can be reduced to a traffic violation but we're not going to complain!

Now in the midst of this good news there is still the reality of having to come up with the $3100 by the end of October. To that end we are going to try and utilize Michael's artistic skills. We're going to hold an art sale to try and sell many of his previous artworks that we have as well as several drawings that he is going to draw over the next couple of weeks. We'll get back to everyone soon on the details of that. We are also open to anyone who would be willing to donate to this cause- we've had a couple of people that said they would be willing to give or donate money and so we are certainly open to the blessings of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Until then we thank everyone for their prayers and support.