The Duke

Where to even begin...

We had a great Thanksgiving. I didn't get to cook because of working so late but we did manage to have turkey and dressing. We had a great time at Cracker Barrel with about 500 other people who refused to cook. I was more impressed with the price than the food ... it only cost us $3o. I couldn't have even bought a turkey for that price!

It's a good thing that we saved money on turkey because we've had to hire a lawyer.

We've decided to go for joint custody with Micah. Luis and Marci (Micah's mother) have never had custody established in court. Paternity was established when Micah was born but nothing was ever done with custody. In fact, Luis' name has never put on Micah's birth certificate until he and I did it on November 7th after our court hearing. Luis and Marci have always been able to get things done in a civil manner ... until now. One of Luis' friends recommended this lawyer to us and so we finally met with him about a week and a half ago. If Larry would have come into the room with a cowboy hat on, I probably would have wet my pants. He is the spitting image of John Wayne!!!! He's definitely someone we're glad is on our side. He's in the process of getting all the paperwork ready to file. I hope he gets it done quickly because he's charging us $175 an hour! He's working with us by allowing us to make monthly payments for his services and he even took a very small retainer on the day that we met with him. We know that we don't have the money for all this but what can you do when you're pushed into a corner and made to come out swinging! We're just continuing to pray about all this. Larry has advised us to not tell Marci about filing for custody. In a way, I'm fine with that but then part of me thinks that she needs a heads up. Larry asked us what we thought her reaction was going to be and whether or not we can get all this done out of court. He has advised us to set aside $5000 should we have to go to court because it's going to cost us atleast that much

So on top of all this, the door bell rings at 7am this morning ... same officer, different house. We were served with papers again this morning!!! This time for "intent to revoke license due to noncompliance with child support". We couldn't believe it. The officer even remembered us from 6 weeks ago when he served us at the other house. We told him that we went to our hearing on November 7th where child support was established and that we weren't ordered to start those payments until December 1st. He rolled his eyes and told us he had no idea why he was serving us with papers but that we still needed to show up for this new hearing which is on January 30th. We put in a call to Larry to know what's going on but we didn't hear back from him today. I'm just scared that one day they're going to show up with an order to arrest Luis, since it appears that no one at DHS is on the same page.

One of the hardest things that we've had to start doing is tithing. I was, up until about the time of the wedding and then just quit when things started getting tight. I don't think Luis has ever tithed in his entire life and so it's been really hard for him to understand. Our church just did a 4 week series on finances called "Mind your Own Business" based on all of Dave Ramsey's stuff. I absolutely love Dave Ramsey! So anyway, we decided that we needed to start tithing. Coinsidently, the sermon series that we are currently in is called "Miracles". We are definitely claiming a miracle in our lives!

P.S. Bonnie and Ryan welcomed little Annabelle Claire Ferguson in to the world around 5pm this afternoon. I don't have many details but I believe she was 8lbs, 1oz with red hair and blue eyes!