celebration

Sometimes justice isn't blind: her eyes are wild open and her ears are hearing lies without believing them.  I had the privilege of attending a recent meeting in a judge's chamber after two attorneys objected to my presence. It is an understatement to say that they had agenda. I had lain awake for many nights agonizing over the details of this particular case and second guessed myself numerous times through out the investigation. I felt like I was carrying the biological Mom, and her children, on my back for the past 21 months. The mother was a slippery character with undiagnosed mental health issue. Munchausen syndrome by proxy came to mind frequently as I observed her interactions with the other players in her story, especially as she talked with doctor's working on her son's case. She had fought to maintain her custody of her so in spite of his drastic weight loss. She had avoided all contact with me, repeatedly canceling appointments and refusing to pick up her phone or return my calls. When I left a message that I would visit her daughter at school if she did not return my call, she kept her home from school claiming that the bus driver had molested her daughter. She decided to change schools or simply keep her home until it was mandatory.  30 days after the testimony on her case was closed her parental rights were terminated. I was relieved, thinking everything was over and that I would not be required to have anymore contact with her.  The next week I was informed that she had filed a motion for a retrial. Eventually denied, she filed an appeal. This was a woman who had no intention of letting voluntarily surrendering custody of her child. And following the child's death she insisted on having his embalmed body returned to her for burial. The craziness of sitting in a room with lawyers wanting to change the involuntary TPR to voluntary was a gross misrepresentation of justice. They were essentially asking the original judge to say she was wrong, and had made a mistake in her original TPR order.