Custody…finally

So, we had a court date (First Appearance for the custody proceding) on November 6, which was rather stressful at first because my lawyer didn’t even show up! They called him and he came…after we had already adjourned. The judge was none to happy with him. His excuse to me was that he didn’t get the paperwork (I have to say that I can see that happening except for the fact that he was the only one who didn’t receive the paperwork). He had my sister’s ID, which she needed for her GED classes on Monday, so we waited, and so did my parents and their lawyer and Jocelyn’s Law Guardian. Instead of making a big long story, I’ll just tell you what the results were. My parents granted me custody and Jocelyn her things in exchange for us dropping the Order of Protection (because they wanted a “relationship” with us, haha).  Anyway, right now I’m just waiting for the paperwork to come through so that I can make arrangements for getting her her stuff. I believe that her law guardian is also going to be filing a petition on her behalf to obtain the ability to talk to Faith and Cody (my other brother and sister that are still living with my parents). I haven’t received any paperwork on that to date.

On the other front, we finally got our health insurance (we applied on July 15, but didn’t get it until November 1), and I’ve been to the doctor, podiatrist, optomologist, and psychiatrist. As it turns out, I’m most likely going to have to get a toenail surgery, I was diagnosed with PTSD, have to see the psychiatrist/counselor every week for the next month or so, and got new glasses. The first appointment with the psychiatrist was a little difficult, but it should get better. At least I don’t have to retell my story again, I hope. While at the optomoligist’s I learned that I am nearsighted and only have to wear my glasses when looking more than 8 ft. away. The last time I had been, they told me to wear them constantly. Whatever.

Oh, and even more exciting news…my husband was in a car accident! Last Saturday, I think it was, my husband was sitting at the stop sign waiting to go on the end of my father-in-law’s street and a drunk driver just ran into the back of the car. The police were called and they arrested him (which he resisted). My husband refused to go to the doctor, and still refuses no matter how many people advice him, ask him, or in any other way try to persuade him to go. He says he doesn’t see why he needs to – it doesn’t hurt. Grrr! Oh well. It’ll be his own fault if something happens because he didn’t go. He won’t be able to blame me for it, I told him to go and so did a lot of other people. Funny thing, my father-in-law, who was the passenger, said his neck felt better after the accident (he has a herniated disk in his neck). Things haven’t been finalized with the car yet. It’s in the shop now for the estimate.

Catch Up

I have, yet again, neglected my duty to update my blog for an extended period of time. Sometimes I think my life is really just a soap opera (or drama of some sort). Shortly after my last post, my mother-in-law, very dramatically, left my father-in-law and got my husbad and sister-in-law caught up in the drama.  Fortunately for me, my role was more of one of support for my husband and listening to my father-in-law’s endless speaches and awkward moments. Things regarding this have been very up and down since then, but have recently turned out in my father-in-law not wanting my mother-in-law back, uncovering some very serious lies (I’m still not sure what the purpose was in telling some of them), and discovering some very unpleasant things.  For instance, my husband has been trying to get a hold of his mother for quite some time, but she won’t call him back or anything (even though she tells people that she does).  We found out through his father, that my mother-in-law has said some very deragotory things about my husband, which devasted him.  Even though he’s trying to be tough. It’s rather sad.  I was hoping that my son would have at least one set of “normal” grandparents. Now he’ll probably ever only know his one grandfather.

That brings me to what has happened lately with my sister. As you already know, she’s been staying at my house for almost two months, but it seems like forever. She was having some eye problems late in September, so we took her to the ER after setting up an appointment for her to get health insurance (she’s eligible for child health plus, which is retroactive). At the time, I didn’t have custody, and, as we found out, neither did CPS. They called my parents for permission to treat her. They refused. We were talking to the CPS worker while all of this was going on, and she suggested that I go up to Family Court to file a Family Offence Petition to obtain temporary custody so that she could be treated.  We did this, and let me tell you, it was very difficult, emotionally. You know how they say that often people in these situations don’t want to hurt the family members that have been hurting them because they are family and they love them? Well, let’s just say that I understand it in a whole new way. So, we got the temporary custody and the order of protection, went to go eat dinner (it was almost 5 p.m. by the time we left Cooperstown, and it takes almost 45 minutes to get back to Oneonta), and then went to the ER. She was seen and told that she had pink eye, which they gave her medication for. That day was one of the most difficult I’ve had in a while.

Since we had filed the Family Offense Petition, we had to go to court. Which we did and, currently, my parents are unwilling to negotiate. They are probably trying to get to us, but it’s extremely stupid because if we go to trial they will probably be put out even more and will have to travel 3 hours for every court date. Currently, I have a lawyer, my sister has a law gaurdian, my parents have a lawyer, and we have another date set-up for another conference because their lawyer thinks she can talk them into a deal. My lawyer also had me apply for full custody.

My son needs to go take his nap, but I’ll update more later.

Update

This month has been crazy!!! It’s hard to believe that it’s almost over – and almost August.  My son has added many words to his vocabulary – he’s even said he was “sorry”.  The apartment is really nice, and only about a half hours walk to work.  Only problem with walking – getting honked at and called “babe”, but it doesn’t happen all the time.  Although, the time I was called “babe” I was just waiting to cross the street infront of my house.

We had our family reunion this last Sunday – and the pasta salad that I brought was completely gone two hours into the reunion.  I saw my entire family for the first time in an year or two (except for my brother) and one of my uncles that I haven’t seen in like 5 years!  It’s amazing how much older everyone is now.  The picnic also brought the possibility of other changes in the future, but they aren’t for sure, so I won’t mention them yet.  You’ll just have to wait… lol!

It’s Been a While

It seems like forever since I’ve posted. Life has been very busy, and, as always, things have been changing very quickly. For instance, not to long ago my sister-in-law and her fiance weren’t sure if they were going to graduate from college, but that has since changed to at least my sister-in-law graduating, most likely. We don’t know about her fiance yet. He has been accepted at a college in Boston, so, as long as he graduates, they will be moving out there. We will miss them, but we also are supposed to get there apartment, if all things work out as planned. We’ll see what happens, this is a big life change for them, and would require my sister-in-law to move away from family and friends, which is something that she is struggling with, understandably.

The front in Montana has been changing quite a bit as well (my family is currently located there). My sister, who is 16 – almost 17, has a new boyfriend, has been going through a lot of challenges with family and friends, and now my family might be moving back to NY (although at one point it was just going to be my Mom and possibly the two youngest children). They have been having her work in their newly opened butcher shop (which, according the they Child Labor Laws of Montana is illegal), and she has been struggling with it because of her cutting history/long hours. So we really have no idea what’s going to happen there.

As far as my job goes, everyone seems to like me, and I’m learning fast. The job itself is really nice, but this past week has been somewhat stressful. I took my first hotline call, and the person was in a near panic attack when she was talking to me; and then I had some other people call the office that were either having panic attacks or were frantic. My job also requires me to read a lot of articles regarding sexual assault/rape/domestic violence, which, when it accumulates, can be difficult to deal with. It has even been affecting my sleep, which in turn is not helping me deal with the things that I am exposed to day in and day out. Any suggestions on how to deal with this job stress?

Spring = Rain :(

This is the one unfortunate thing about spring – rain. Although, it doesn’t make me feel so bad about being cooped up inside all the time. I’ll be even less happy when everything is warmed up enough that everything gets coated in mud. Oh well.

Well, I have some good and bad news on the apartment search front. My sister-in-law and her family are going to be moving in the late summer, not sure exactly where yet, but most likely Boston; and, the good news is… they’ve promised us that we can take over their apartment when they leave. Bad news is that we won’t be able to move until the summers over, which means getting harassed for about another five months or so. Yuck! The bad news is also that my sister-in-law and her family will be moving so far away. And with gas prices the way they are, it will be difficult to see them ever.

Job’s going really well. I just finished taking the Rape Crisis Counselor class this last weekend, so now I’ll actually be able to have a weekend on a regular basis (hopefully). Oh, yesterday was the first day here for one of the guys that I used to work with at McDonald’s. It’s kind of funny how it happened. Apparently, right after I quite McDonald’s and they were making a big to-do about it, this guy got the job (the day after, to be more precise), and gave his notice. As you can imagine they weren’t to happy. Oh well. We’re both improving our lives and helping our community, which is what really matters.

Tomorrow is my husband’s, dare I say, 25th birthday! I’m so happy for him…and for the dinner we are going to be having. We’re having lobster tail, steak, and bacon wrapped asparagus (you should try it it is really good) for dinner; and chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, and peanut butter cup ice cream for desert. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? I can’t wait!