Court

I am so far behind and have so many posts swimming around in my head (or on the draft table), but at least wanted to give an update of the Permanency Planning Trial. 

Last we left off, we were waiting on a court date for a repeat Permanency Planning Trial. That date was finally set for March 1st, and I planned to attend.  I typically do, but the last court date I was unable to go, and that was when weird things happened that no one could really explain.  Foster Care Review Board was also scheduled for the afternoon of March 1st so I pretty much just took the whole day off. 

We were the first case called.  Dad's lawyer was there, and apparently mom's lawyer had asked to be relieved from the case (the second lawyer that has done so).  But neither dad nor mom showed up.  (Seriously?!  If I were having a court hearing that concerned my child, I don't care how confident I was that things were going to go my way, or how convinced I was that things weren't.... whether I had a lawyer or not... my butt would be in that courtroom!)

The trial took all of five minutes, and the goal was changed to TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) only!  Now we are still waiting on a court date for a trial to actually determine if the rights are terminated. 

Foster Care Review Board also took all of about 10 minutes.  They presented the case, nothing really has changed, and they still recommended termination of parental rights.  (But remember, FCRB really has no weight in that decision, beyond what weight the judge wants to give it when he considers the case.)

And I found out later that mom had shown up for FCRB, but 30 minutes late, after everything was over.  I'm not sure why she showed up to that but not to court, but it's all part of "logic in my world and yours is totally different..."