We are so blessed!!!

So over the 4th of July weekend, we took Cari Sue and Sean to float the river.  Usually, everybody has a beer in their hand, so we decided to be cool too and go get Sonic drinks.  Dave and I were sharing a tube and right after we went through the chute a police officer pulled us out of the river and asked me if it was my cup.  I had heard they were having a no-refusal weekend, so I assumed it was about alcohol and I proudly responded yes, but that there was no alcohol in it because I don't drink alcohol.  Well, jokes on me...it had nothing to do with alcohol.  Apparently, there's a law in New Braunfels; no styrofoam.  We had no idea, not even the slightest.  We tried to explain that to the officer, but he was stern and said no exceptions this weekend.  So the mean officer wrote us up a ticket.  Dave insisted he bought the cup so he should be the one written up, so he went over with the officer.  It was probably better that Dave went, because I had so many insults running through my mind to use on that officer that wouldn't have helped the situation, but would've made me feel better.  He said that he didn't know the price, city violations were anywhere from $1-$500 and that we'd find out in a few days when our ticket was processed. 
    So the next week I was at Girl's Camp and I called Dave and asked him to check on that ticket.  The officer had mentioned that we could go into the courthouse and challenge the ticket, so we had agreed that if it was $30 or more, it would be worth the gas money and time to go challenge.  He got online and all I hear is silence, and then him repeatedly saying, "No, this can't be right, this just can't be right!"  Any guesses on how much?  $419!!! For a $1 Sonic drink!!!
     We went and challenged it.  We appeared on our court date and finally got in to talk with a prosecutor.  She offered to drop it $100, I wanted to laugh, like I'd accept that!  After explaining that this ticket is almost how much we pay in rent each month and how there was no warning given and we would've happily thrown out our $1 cup if there had been signs posted.  So she dropped it down to what she said the lowest was for the holiday weekend + the court fees which added up to $198.  I still wouldn't accept that and we told her we just didn't have the funds to pay that, so she offered us community service hours.  So $419 turned into 16 hours of community service hours.  That I accepted.
     I called around to a few places, it had to be non-profit and non-religious.  Every company insisted they interview Dave and he'd have to complete an orientation before they could promise any hours.  I would try to explain that he wasn't a criminal, we just had a Sonic cup on the river, but I don't think they believed me.  Dave decided he'd just do the orientation and go down to the soup kitchen and spend 4 Saturday mornings there.  After lots of research I called the Boy Scouts and got some wonderful news, they were non-profit and non-religious.  Every Wednesday with our youth group, Dave works with a scout troop.  So I found a way to count the hours he was already doing every week towards his community service.  Our home teacher is the scout master and he signed off the forms for us.  We sent it in last week and when I called today, they told me that the case was closed and we're cleared.  New Braunfels didn't get a dime out of us.  So many prayers and so much time spent worrying about how we were going to be able to pay that, what a blessing!!!