Legal Updates

In case you were wondering, here's an update on our legal fun:

1. The truck. Remember that wonderful Mission Mobile we got scammed into buying when it wasn't legally sell-able? Remember our fight to get the paperwork? Well, it's been 2 1/2 years now, and we're still fighting. We visited the notary who supposedly is the hold-up, to find out that she still doesn't have the paperwork from the loan company of the man who sold it to the car dealer who sold it to us. You got that, right? The word is that the man who sold it before he should have (i.e. before he paid off the debts on it) has paid the debts, but lost his receipt. So the clean title can't be issued until he pays a fee for a new receipt or finds the old one. He's in no hurry.

2. The truck's motor. We did finally get it out of the shop. We put it in to have the motor worked on (ended up having to be re-rebuilt) the first of December, and were told it'd only take a few days. We got it back four months later, took it on the road the first time, and the motor locked up. Dead. It is now sitting in a friend's mechanic shop until we decide if we want to re-re-rebuild this motor or just replace it, for a considerably higher cost. We'll see. It's not real fun knowing we wasted the recent expense in having it re-rebuilt. Thank God we were able to find a little Volkswagen and are bopping around in that. It's been a lot more cost effective than the mission mobile would have been in fuel expenses back and forth to PT each day, an important point to consider since gas is about $5.50/gal right now.

3. The leg. Our wreck lawyer, who happens to be the praise-and-worship leader at the church, has informed us that the man who hit me, is not responding to his attempts to contact him. He has not actually made good on any of his promises to help with the medical expenses, and we are now looking at what can be done about that. The expenses are mounting, and the driver assured us that he was willing and able to step up. We'll see. (**NOTE that we have found a different lawyer and a different mechanic than those mentioned in #1 and 2 above, both of which we feel were Godsends. They have put our minds at ease about the trust factor, at least!)

4. On the way to PT about two weeks ago, a city bus pulled over into our lane and hit our little car. The driver of the bus insisted we should pull up to the nearby police building to resolve it, but as suspected, he kept driving. So we filled out the report from our point of view with the police and turned it into the bus company, who says that the company insurance covers things such as this. The general consensus from the public is that the bus company NEVER pays for their wrecks, even when they admit fault. We'll see. Thankfully, there wasn't any major damage done.

5. On the way BACK from PT a few days ago, we were motioned over by the police. This is nothing new, and especially during the Bicentennial celebrations. There is, naturally, much more traffic, so there are many, many more traffic stops. The police stand in the middle of the road and motion for every 2nd or 3rd car to pull over. They work really hard to find some reason for a ticket, at which point the typical person offers a small bribe, and drives away. Since we do not offer bribes, we get written tickets. This was a minor infraction, but it didn't do much for morale, to be honest.

I guess I don't have to explain that riding in Asuncion is worse than seeing New York in a taxi, and the drives there and back each day work on my post-wreck peace of mind. They kinda take their toll on my chauffeur-husband, too. I can say that I'm truly glad I'm not having to make the trip by bus every day, but the trip by car is taxing. When you add the fun of wrecks and paperwork and tickets, it's easy to see how the enemy has declared warfare on us in this area. We are aware of it, though, and fighting from this end. God is greater than the legal system, the anxiety, the unsafe driving conditions, and the mechanical foolishness we are encountering, and we know He has a plan in all of this.

It's an adventure here, that's all I can say. Thank God that we know this part is only a chapter of the book, and HE writes the ending. :) God is good.

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