Home, Sweet Home

It's been a wonderful week. Eric is finally home and we are together once again as a family. I was able to get Eric out of jail at 6AM Monday morning (8th of Sept) and bring him home before I left for Dallas TX on a business trip. I was able to spend a few hours with Eric and this made me feel so much better about leaving town on the day he got out. I praise the Lord for this opportunity. It turns out that I was the very last person to arrive in Dallas for our Company meetings that day. Isn't it amazing how God worked all this out. I didn't have to leave for the airport till 12 noon and Eric got out at 6AM to give me time to be with him. When I arrived at Dallas a representative from our Company was there to greet me and five others who were on the same flight. He said you are the last ones in for the day. The last six out of several thousand flying in for this meeting!... This was the first time that I didn't fly out early morning, I've been attending these meetings twice each year for over 15 years now and I've never before been scheduled to leave after noon, until now... God just worked it out!

As far as Eric goes, he's doing well. Several of you have asked how he's doing and I apologize for not updating my blog sooner. It's been a very busy week with me being out of town and of course spending my free time with our son Eric has left me very little time to write. Like I mentioned in my last post... we still need your prayers! We've closed one chapter only to begin another. Life as you know, is simply one chapter after the other. One chapter has it's pain and joys, while another has more of the same I suppose. It's how we react to these different chapters in our lives that will determine how we feel and how much joy we can have. Can a person have joy during suffering without Christ? I can't imagine how, it's hard enough to have joy during suffering with Christ in your life... imagine without? This new chapter in our lives has both, joy and pain. The joy comes from being free from the confinements of jail and being able to enjoy the pleasures of our home and his family. The joy is being with his daughter and seeing them spend time together (she loves her Daddy so much), the pain is in the fact that he is still on house arrest for quite a while and then of course some more probation time after that. Rules, rules, rules... they really never end do they. Rules of the house, rules at work, rules of government and in our society, rules at school, and of course even more rules when you've broken the law in some way and trying to work your way back into society. Rules are very important and if there is one thing we need to do a better job of teaching our youth... that would be following the rules. One things for sure... we will follow them one way or the other. We can obey them voluntarily or be forced to obey them. Rest assured... life is harder if you can not accept that you have rules to follow. A lesson Eric's learned the hard way!

Even with all these rules, I can't tell you how happy we all are. It's great to have Eric home and he's accepted his lot in life and he's going to overcome. He's wanting to go to church but we understand that too will be a privilege later in the upcoming weeks. It's hard to think that I can say life is good under these circumstances, but it is! It's wonderful to have our son back. It's wonderful to see the joy on my wife's face again. It's good to see my youngest son Ryan spending time with his older brother again. We've longed for this day and it came. Thank you Lord Jesus.

Thanks again for all your prayers, I've listed a few prayer requests that we have need of if you would like to pray for some specifics for us.

Eric needs to find work... required for probation.
Eric will not lose heart working on all the rules and restrictions applied to him.
Eric, Marcie, and Halle find a local Church they feel they can grow and be ministered in.
That Brenda and I be the examples that God would want us to be for our family.

God bless you all,
Steve