Update: A Son's Advocate

I am still in Oklahoma City but I stopped by the library to check my e-mail and look in on my blog. There were 21 new blogs for me to read, so I haven't taken time to totally catch up.

I want to thank all of you who have prayed for the situation with my son. I was a little frustrated on Wednesday, as I never got to talk to his lawyer. I did leave him a message, and the secretary said he did get it.

I went to his office at 8:15 Thursday morning, and was able to talk to him a few minutes before court. I watched the proceedings; he said he would keep me informed.

The bottom line is: the lawyer applied for a community service sentence which is a form of probation. They won't know if he was approved for that until his next court date. It is not a guarantee. The lawyer tried to get a court date in May, but the judge said the next available date was June 15th. His lawyer said Tim would like to be "bonded out" if possible until the next court date. I really wanted to do that, as he would have been out and I would be able to see him. Normally when you pay bail, you pay 10% of the bail that has been set. However, since I do not live here and no one locally to co-sign, I would have had to pay the entire amount--$18000!!. So that option was no longer open.

I talked to Tim today for about 30". He understood about the bail, and said he's doing Ok; doesn't want me to worry about him. We had a nice conversation. He asked for me to send him a list of our relatives so that he can pray for them individually.

I was initially disappointed. But I firmly believe the Lord is in control. He will work this out for the best for Tim and for His glory. Thank you so much for your prayers.

A Son's Advocate

I'm sitting in the airport--got here early--and I was catching up on my blog reading. I'm off to Oklahoma to be an advocate for my son. He is bi-polar, and has been in jail for theft. He is at a crossroads of either receiving a prison sentence for 5 years, or a probation/community service sentence. He has a public defender, who because of his case load, has perhaps not made Tim's case a priority. I am going to talk to him tomorrow before Tim's court date on Thursday.

Pray I will have wisdom; also that the lawyer will present his case well, and the judge will agree to the more lenient sentence. My son has recently come back to the Lord, so I'm praying that God will be merciful in this situation. I would of course covet your prayers.

Keepsakes from Mom and Dad

When we were going through Mom and Dad's belongings, which is certainly an interesting process, there were a few things that are certainly considered treasures. I felt very privileged to be allowed to have the oak table and chairs, and the antique corner hutch that belonged to them.

The table and chairs and hutch have been in my garage since they were moved here. I'm so happy to say that on Thursday evening they got moved into the house.

In retrospect, I felt I should have taken a picture of the table without the tablecloth. But alas, maybe because of age, sometimes my thinker is a little off balance. At any rate, it looks very nice in my dining room.

(Sorry, this is a little blurry)

The hutch was moved from Archbold,Ohio to Woodburn, Indiana without any problem and placed in my garage. My husband was in Haiti, and I wanted to move the hutch just a little bit, and I thought I was being very careful, but in doing that, the lower glass in the door shattered in many pieces. I was just devastated, as it is a curved glass, and I didn't know if it could be replaced. However, I took it to a glass place, and they made a new one and installed it in the door. I very carefully brought it home on Friday.

It was SO much fun putting things on the shelves. The top shelf has some pretty crystal things, as there is a mirror behind it. The next shelf has my stemware. The third shelf has the cake plate I got from mom (I think it was used at their wedding); and the third and bottom shelf have a set of dinnerware that I got from my mother-in-law from my first marriage.

(I tried to get a better picture, but the flash would make a bright spot on it, so this will have to do for now).

shelf on top of the hutch

I was also excited that I could display my demi-tas cups that I brought from Haiti. Some of these I had and some I just got from Mother's things, as I had given her a set when I came back from my short-term missionary service in Haiti.

Thanks for allowing me to share my joy at having these family keepsakes to enjoy. Come on by and see them anytime!

The Ongoing Barn Saga

OK, I'll admit it! My curiosity just got the best of me. I hadn't been up to the farm in over a week, and I just had to see how the barn demolition (for lack of a better word) was progressing. I knew they were predicting rain for today, but at 8:00 am it wasn't raining and didn' look imminent, so I headed for Archbold.

The side facing the house

(I still get directions a little confused)

South side?

(the bottom part of this side is still there)

North side? (toward the road)

As you can see, the roof is entirely off. There are still some beams standing. They were working on getting them down today. In the first picture you can see one of the guys in the forklift--they were lifting him up to try to loosen or saw the cross beam on that side.

It was really cold!! I don't know how these 2 guys could stand to be out there working. My hands were frozen just being outside a few minutes to take pictures. I went in the house and made some coffee just to warm up.

I didn't stay very long--maybe 30 minutes. The rain started to fall just as I made it back home. I stopped in Ft. Wayne at Walmart and then went to the fitness center to work out. I came home and had a salad and chicken breast (I'm still doing OK on my diet!).

The rain is rather cold and depressing (we've had so much of it). I thought my best plan of action for the afternoon was to sit in my recliner, blog, read, have some green tea, and rest.

Praise for a Risen Savior!

My usual responsibility on Sundays is to record the prayer requests and answers to prayer; then I put them in an e-mail to everyone. Sometimes I also include an encouraging statement or verse. Today, we did not have our regular Sunday School classes. We just had the worship service. But I decided to send out a special "Prayer and Praise Notes" to our Sunday School (FLOCK) members. I thought I would also post it here.

POTTER'S CLAY FLOCK PRAYER & PRAISE NOTES

EASTER SUNDAY, April 12, 2009

Special Edition

PRAYER

Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest exercise of the faculties God has given us—an exercise that links these faculties with the Maker to work out the intentions He had in mind in their creation. Prayer is aligning ourselves with the purposes of God.

E. Stanley Jones

Pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I Thessalonians 5: 17,18

…the prayer of the upright pleases Him Proverbs 15:8b

PRAISE

For many years, we have always sung the following song on Easter, but we didn't sing it this year. Our pianist played it today as we were being dismissed. But I just wanted to share it with you here.

I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today,
I know that He is living, whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.

Rejoice, rejoice O Christian, lift up your voice and sing,
Eternal Hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!
The hope of all who seek Him the help of all who find,
None other is so loving, so good and kind.

HE LIVES, HE LIVES, Christ Jesus lives today,
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
HE LIVES, HE LIVES, salvation to impart,
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart!

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth! Psalm 8:1

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name, for the Lord is good and His love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

I trust you all are experiencing a blessed Easter Sunday.

(Note: the alignment on this didn't come out quite like I had it originally, but I decided it was the content that was important.)

Alpaca Extravaganza!

What a morning! I've had several little adventures lately, and this would definitely qualify as an adventure. I had no idea there were so many alpacas in our area, and so many different kinds! Erin's family were showing Suri alpacas. They had 2 black and one beige. Their son, Ben, showed a huacaya brown alpaca for one of their neighbors, I think to give Ben experience in the ring. (He is a very cute 12 y/o).

Erin with Flashback

(the one her dad showed)

Flashback got a 1st place blue ribbon

Erin showing her small black Suri female

You can't see Erin or her alpaca real well. There were 13 animals in her class, and she was in the back row. The big guy in front kept getting in the way, so I had a hard time getting her picture. But you can see the alpaca she is showing is much smaller than some of the others.

Oops!
(Erin, Emily, Sandy and Mike)

I wanted to get a picture of the whole family. However, Ben and Elizabeth (the youngest) were nowhere to be found at that moment. This is the alpaca that Ben showed. They were all laughing because just as I was getting ready to take the picture the alpaca decided to show his better side!

It was a really fun morning and Erin was very pleased that I came to see her. She said, "Sorry I didn't get a ribbon". I assured her that it wasn't her fault, and more likely because there were so many animals in her group. She said sometimes they divide the big groups, but they opted not to do that today. This was one more memory to share with my cute little mentoree (is that a word?).

A Failed Mission!

I know, I know! Those who are not family are going to get tired of barn pictures. I just couldn't resist going back today to watch the progress. I had told myself it was kind of silly, but in the

end, I couldn't resist.

The above picture is how it looked when I arrived today. I was afraid the roof would be down by the time I got there, as I didn't get there until 1:30p.m. When I arrived, Matt said, "Did you bring your camara?" I said "Of course! Am I going to see something exciting?" He proceeded to tell me that they were doing a minor repair on the forklift, and they were planning to take the roof off. It seemed to me that I had perfect timing.

(Note: I thought it was interesting that the beams on one end of the barn were in an A-frame . That's something we couldn't see until all of the siding was off.)

The picture above is a little dark, but you can see the welder working on the forklift. He worked on it for about 15 minutes; then he told them to wait a little bit to let it cool off and it should be good to go.

I had made some coffee, and offered some to the men while they were waiting. I told them they might become famous by being seen on my blog! I'm sure they were impressed.

Starting the Action!

The forklift was ready to go and they started on one end of the barn. He loosened several pieces of aluminum and lifted the corner of the barn up.

He was puncturing the aluminum strips on this section trying to get them loose. All of the sudden the guy on the ground shouted at him to stop. I didn't know what had happened at first, but as it turned out, the fork lift had bent. The part that telescopes had bent, right at the place where it should retract back into the arm. The guys said they had never seen anything like this happen.

They were able to back the forklift back down the barn bank, and they could lower the arm. but the extension was very definitely bent! It was disappointing for me, but it will be a major set back for them. They obviously had to quit for the day.

The Bent Arm
(It's a little hard to see the bend as there is a chain
right in front of the spot where it is bent)

I have a Dr's appointment tomorrow, and I really have some other things I need to do, including going to the fitness center (I have a free week's pass, and I hate to waste it!). So I won't be going tomorrow. I'm not sure they'll even be able to work unless they get a replacement forklift. I'm not sure if this one can be repaired. I believe some of my siblings will be there on Saturday, so I'll have to depend on a report from them.

Barn Demolition Continues

Last Friday my 2 sisters and I went to Dad's farm to watch as they dis-assemble the barn. It was really interesting! It was amazing to me that they were able to remove so many huge beams without the barn collapsing. The workers assured us that they weren't concerned about walking around in the shell. Apparently there are a couple of support beams that will come out last, and then the roof will fall in.

I didn't really post any pics from last Friday. My sister, Brenda, posted a wonderful blog about our day with some great pictures. You can see them at Brenda's blog.

However, today I set out on another adventure. I was sort of thinking that they might be collapsing the barn today, so I decided to go watch. Matt told me they will probably be collapsing it tomorrow. They are trying to get everything that they can out of the barn and the siding off before it collapses. After that, it will be slower work, salvaging what is good .

I found this really fascinating today. I couldn't believe how much of a shell it is, with just the center section standing. I couldn't resist posting a few pics from today.

View from the back

The Front

Matt, Removing siding using the forklift

The East Side

(I didn't know there were bricks under the wood)

The sign from the West Side

(Pic taken in old garage where it is stored)

After watching and taking pics, I decided to go into town and warm up! It was really cold, because of the wind, at 25-30 mph. I'm sure the guys were cold, though they were dressed for the weather. So-o-o, I went to the Scrapbook store, just to look around. Right!! I just had to make a few purchases.

Of course, no adventure is complete without lunch! I stopped in at Mom's Diner, and because I'm currently in a weight loss contest with Lou and Brenda, I had a chef salad with chicken and hot tea. I can't believe, I didn't weaken and have a piece of pie!