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.

We get to see the boys

After spending 2 hrs. with the boys father at the therapist on 12-3 we finally got to see the boys with the therapist present on 12-9. It had been 5 months and 9 days since we had talked to them in person. The therapist is court appointed but she seems to be ok. We have been there before and the jury is still out on that. We saw them again at her office on 12-16 for about 40 min. after she had talked to the boys one at a time and then with us and the boys father together. The boys want to come to our house for overnight but their father objects so the will come to spend 8 hrs. with us on 12-26. After that they will start spending more time with us. I asked if we could go to the little boys school music program at school the next day and the boys father said no. I will add more after Christmas.

Case Plan Meeting

We had a case plan meeting this afternoon. It was about the same old thing with different players. The only one of the old crew was the guy who visits the boys. The CSO (court officer)was there for the first time. The boys were not allowed to attend. Court orders you know. I would have thought there was enough people there to protect them from us. Now we wait for the therapist.

Appeal Denied

On July 29th I sent a "report of alleged violation" to the Behavioral Sicences Board with a mound of evidence of wrong doing by the case manager and the family therapist. Today I called the Special Investigator to ask about the status of the investigation. I got a call back from one of the underlings who said it was turned over to the review committee yesterday and they dismissed it. Now we must find a new route, and we will.

old blog

To read the first part of the blog click on "old blog" at the bottom of the page.

We see the therapist

We went to see the court appointed therapist this morning. Things may be looking up. She seems to be down to earth and has common sense, a quality that seems to be in short supply in that profession. One thing we had in common is none of us knew why we were there. She is going to check with the court and see if they know and get back with us.

Youthville Confession

We visted with our state representative last Friday about our problems getting to see the boys. We got a call yesterday from an upper level manager at Youthville. He said he had a call from the state representative and he wanted to hear our side of how we were treated. Before I could start he told me the case manager had been fired and during the conversation he indicated the foster parents in Lyons are no longer foster parents. He said he had talked to several people that we had dealing with at Youthville and they had nothing but good things to say about us. He said the case manager shouldn't have made the recomendation that we have supervised visits. He was sorry we had to go through all this but there is nothing they can do about it now. I suggested they go back to court and tell the judge what he had told me and he said "Oh no,we couldn't do that". So us and the boys go on paying for the state and there contractors mistakes. One good thing came out of the conversation. When I told Ruby the case manager had been fired she giggled and did a little dance. I was afraid she would break something.