Update on Court

As usual, court today was uneventful and dramatically eventful all at the same time.

Of course, I wouldn't really know that because I missed it.  I thought I was told 9:30am - apparently it was 8:30 am.  If you know anything about court with CPS cases you know that arriving an hour late doesn't necessarily mean you missed your chance, but in this case I did.  Not only that, I was sent to the wrong place first.  Thankfully it was a small town in the south and they were very helpful in pointing mie to the right place.  Of course there were two potential right places and luckily the one I went to first was the right one.  Except that I tried every courtroom before finding the right one and these courts are quiet and well controlled unlike the ones I'm used to.  

Thankfully the CW and CASA were still there so at least I knew I was at the right place.  When we had a chance we went ahead and left the courtroom to talk where they broke the news that the hearing was over.  Then we had a great conversation about how the case was going.  Here are the highlights:

• The ICPC was denied.  In the state they reside in (not my state) these people are too far removed to count as kin so they'd have to be approved as licensed foster parents not a kinship placement.  Apparently also in that state they don't license openly homosexual people who are in a cohabiting relationship.  Therefore, these people are no longer and option
• Parent still in the picture would like to relinquish to a relative.  Normally that would be acceptable except these relatives have a criminal history that has resulted in denial for placement multiple times.  It appears we will be heading down that road again and we'll find out what the judge says at some point.
• The state still believes reunification may be possible.

So, as you can see these are huge developments and yet we're still roughly at the same place in the case as we were before.  That's how it goes!  Until things are final they are still very uncertain.  I suppose that is always true but certainly characterizes the situation of foster care. 

It will definitely be interesting to see how this case progresses.  I'm praying that we can have an opportunity to minister to the mom in this case because it sounds like she could definitely use someone in her corner.

In other news, as I left I got a text message from Summer's birthparents and they will not be able to make their first of two visits this year.  I have no reaction to that.  It is what it is.