A Minute of Fun

Now that we are back home and settled in I can actually write about our experiences visiting. When you are in the middle of some things it is just too hard to write about them without adding a bunch of emotion or something!

We got to visit Micah for about 12 hours every weekend for four weekends. It was glorious to see him, and feel him and talk to him. I was so amazed at how we just fell right into family roles as soon as we were together. One of the worries when Micah went to prison so young was that he would grow up too soon.

Well no worries about that one! I am very happy to report he is still the same joky jokster and big teddy bear Micah! From throwing a fit while we played Trouble to chasing his little sister around the visitor yard to being able to finish off $30.00 worth of vending machine junk food he was 100% himself.

He is open to visits now, you can all cut loose. He has eight hours one day on the weekends and four hours on one other day. It is so great to see him and enjoy his sense of humor for awhile. Sure makes you grateful for your life however awful it may seem at the moment. There is nothing like visiting an inmate to put your problems in perspective.

When we went on the last day to visit I planned to take a few pictures of the prison to post here. By the time I tore myself away from him, knowing I would not see him for another 13 months and hating that place more than anything in the world I told hubby, "put that camera away, I don't ever want to see this place again in my life".

In a short 13 months Micah will be saying the same thing!

Excellent Article

In talking with a visitor and Micah this past weekend I was made aware that I had not shared the following link. This is an article Micah has written telling just a little about his experience. Hopefully it will convince others to make good choices.

Next week I will be posting pictures and stories about our experiences visiting Micah. Our last visit will be Saturday morning :(. It has been awesome to visit with him every weekend and get to know our son again. The best part is we still love him a ton and think he is awesome!

Enjoy this article.

http://www.askthejudge.info/lessons-from-a-teen-prison-inmate/10424/

VISIT THANKS

This is a big thank you to those who have been to visit Micah. He has been enjoying having visitors. Thank you also to those of you who have spoken with the mitigation team in Micahs behalf. Of course curses on you if you are not speaking on his behalf.

I have gotten to talk to Micah twice this week and have enjoyed talking to him. We are sending him the books to start his anatomy work for massage. He figured he might as well learn something while he is there. So he will be starting with learning all the muscles, their origins and insertions. That will keep him busy for a few weeks to be sure.

He did say that he had been working on his cellys shoulder because he hurt it doing push-ups. He said the gaurd just looked at them like they were gay or something, and I just said she was jealous because she wants a massage really bad. I can imagine all the gaurds could use a massage. But I don't think they would get a very nice one from Micah :)

LONG HAIRED HIPPY

So I hear Micah has long hair now! And he is freakin huge. That of course is his way of preparin for prison life. He wears his hair in a pony that he ties back with a piece of sheet.
A problem seems to be going on with the officers at coconino county. Evidently they can't keep track of if he has visits available or not. Yesterday two people went to visit and were told he did not have any visits left.
Then he called girlfriend and asked why she had not visited him. So she called again and was told that he did not have any visits. She took a chance and went down anyway. Lo and behold he did have visits. What the heck?
You would think it is enough to have your freedom taken from you. Your family removed from you and your friends. Your life put on hold. This does not seem to be enough for some people. They seem to take joy out of making life just a little more miserable. Woo hoo, what a thrill!

BROTHERS

Sorry to say Micah has lost a very consistant visitor! Happy to say I have one of my sons here in Costa Rica. I really needed it and am so glad Jake came to visit. I know Micah will miss his visits, or at least when he could beat Jaima to the punch and actually get a visit. I'm sure they will both remember the last one a couple of Sundays ago and cherish it for a very long time. The good part is now Micah can actually talk to Jake more since he can call him on our phone.
I have not been able to talk to Micah as much as I would like, it gets pretty expensive thanks to the companys that take over the phone lines and charge four bucks for every 15 miinutes. And that is for a local call, the long distance was fifty bucks for 15 minutes! That was why we got a area code to match the one where Micah is currently at.
I have not figured out how they managed to pull this scam on the people, but it is impossible to get an answer. One woman tried to talk to the phone service where her son was incarcerated and was told maybe they charged so much because the prisoners deserved it for whatever they did to get there in the first place.
So many people forget that prisoners are people doing their time for a crime, and sometimes with excessive sentences, we don't need to add to their pain and suffering anymore than they already have.