My son, who has never even had a parking ticket, who has had a job since he was 16, married for 12+ to the first girl he kissed, who he'd known since they were both 15, with 4 kids, a Navy veteran with an honorable discharge...who looked at the wrong video and after spending over $200,000 in legal costs, was offered a plea deal by the prosecuters (either plead guilty and serve 2 years in jail or go to trial and possibly spend 25+ years in jail), went against everyone else's advice, including his lawyers' and took the deal because he was so afraid of the possibility of never seeing his children again. He spent 2 years in Seatac Federal Prison and today his wife and her sister (family and friends don't want her alone, and she and my son didn't want a crowd) are standing in the parking lot outside the prison, waiting for my boy to finally be released.
SeaTac is in Seattle, and home is in Western Montana. They decided not to tell the kids in case something went wrong and his release was held up. So the kids are at his other Grandma's house (I don't live in the same town), with no idea that Daddy's on his way. For most of my grandchildren's lifes, they have been a Navy family, so have grown up used to 8-month long deployments every few years.
We are lucky. He has big loving families on both sides (his in-laws and us), who are able to offer financial and emotional support. I am so scared about the days to come. Will he be able to go to Parent/Teacher Conferences? School concerts? The kids' sports events? The waterslides and such? Someday will someone stumble across his name and picture on the registry and harass my grandchildren at school?
What can I do? How do you make it better? Is there any possible way for me to make it not hurt or hurt less?
He is 33, but the driving urge to fix it because I'm the Mommy is just as overwhelming as it was when he was 3.
Tell him we said hi and great to have him back. Vicki Henry
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