New day in court

I have been remiss in my updates but I am writing a book about this whole sordid afair and after sitting at this computer for 3 or 4 hrs. I don't want anymore that day.
Since my last entry we had the boys over to our house twice unsupervised and neither one got hurt. Isn't that amazing. The first visit was the day after Christhmas for 8 hrs. We were supposed to get them for an overnighter but their dad didn't want them to so that didn't happen. Again the abuser prevails. The next visit was Jan. 11 for 6 hrs.
We went back to court yesterday. We had a whole new team of players. The previous judge was moved to civil court, the previous case manager was fired for mishandling the boys case and our lawyer was elected to the bench. It looks like 2 of the 3 were an improvement.
The new case manager was the same song second verse. She recomended giving the boys dad full custody of them. That bunch at Youthville hasn't learned a thing. We were a little concerned about our attorney. He had been appointed by the court to replace our old one without consulting us. He appears to be an improvement over the previous 3. I'm trying to think of a good way to describe the judge so I don't take a chance on having to recant later. Our experience with the previous judge made us have serious doubts about the juvenile justice system. My guess is that's why he is in civil court now.
I don't know what the new judge's name is but for now he appears to be a big step up. We still haven't been allowed to talk to him but he did listen to out lawyer. That's a change. The boys dad didn't want us to see the boys at all. I'm going to try to quote the judge word for word. He said, " It looks like the grandparents are the only ones staying on schedule. They are the ones that stepped up when no one else wanted them". That just amazed us. That was the first time anyone had mentioned we had a part in this. He gave the boys dad the option of us having the boys 1 weekend a month or 2 Sundays. He thought he would have time to think it over but the judge said he had to decide right then. He decided on 2 Sundays a month. The boys are wanting overnighters but maybe that will come later.
One final thing. When we were going to the therapist with the boys the little one commented that he made snowflakes with paper and sissors in school. The therapist asked him if he wanted to make some there? He said yes and she got him paper, sissors and colors. While we were talking he was cutting on a piece of paper. He cut holes all over the paper. When he finished he said I'm going to let grandma take it home with her and color it. She put it in her purse and the first thing she did when we got home was color it and hang it on the door of the china cabinet. The china cabinet is all glass except the back and frame. About a month later we had company over and as they were leaving grandma said look, there's a cross on the wall. We all looked where she was pointing and sure enough there was a light in the shape of a cross about a foot from the china cabinet. It wasn't anything to get excited about. When the light over the sink was on it reflected at an angle through the paper with all the snowflakes and cast an image of a cross on the wall. That was simple right, wrong. The holes in the paper were not in the shape of a cross. The light had selected only the holes needed to make a cross. You Methodist at Youthvile need to pay attention. Gods trying to tell you something.