Why is our life so weird?

I spoke with our court liason officer for the juvenile justice system today and she gave me a great update on our little adopted felon, Thomas. As an aside, she has been great in keeping us updated and letting us know what to expect as we trudge through the court system, so kudos to DW for a job well done. She basically said that "no news is good news" and that Thomas entered Youth Challenge and unless he flunks out or opts to leave, we will not hear anything. If he does opt out, the case will bounce back for sentencing and he will have to serve jail time. Nothing like a proverbial sword hanging over your neck to give you some motivation, huh? The other great news is that his mother has been charged and will be arraigned around Thanksgiving for the theft and delinquency of a minor charge (relating to Thomas and his younger brother). We don't have to appear, but if hell has frozen over and she decides to plead guilty, the judge will sentence her at that time. I don't hold my breath that she will do that since she immediately blamed her son (yeah, mom of the year!) for the theft despite the fact that she was driving the getaway car. I'm pretty sure that she should not count that as "quality time" spent with her children, or I have been reading the wrong parenting books! Stupid me, taking my kids to the park and Fernbank. The reason this whole situation seems so strange to me is this: If you had told me last year that I would be muddling through the courts as a crime victim, I would have said "you're crazy". We don't live a life of danger and I kind of thought we were immune to crime since we are so (dare I say it) boring. Even crazier that we have been able to show the Gospel to a kid who has had no upbring from his parents in the most real way I can imagine. So here I sit, hoping that our repentant car contents thief will persevere in his time at Youth Challenge and will show up at our door ( since he knows where we live, hee hee) and present us with his graduation diploma, and we will be able to rejoice with him on his good choices and say "Job well done". Here's praying for no jail for Thomas and mucho jail for his mother.