a surprise ruling

Tuesday in court was crazy. I mean, super crazy. There was a lot of emotion and drama including even a trip to the emergency room. And when the day was through the judge surprised us all with a ruling that was not even mentioned as a possibility. He awarded us full custody of Alfredo.

You can only imagine how this ruling has made this family of ours, which has felt fragile in the best of times, now so much more solid and secure. We'll possibly be returning to court through the years as circumstances change for parties involved but we continue to pray that the best interest of Alfredo is always evident and clear.

His mother, who has had only supervised visits since Alfredo was first brought into our care, was awarded visitation. We have the right to monitor the visitation for appropriateness. Starting December 1, but more likely when Alfredo is ready, opens the possibility of overnight visits.

The one person who really lost in all of this is Alfredo's father. He made the hard choice to not appear in court nor did he have representation. The judge read this as disinterest. As a result, Alfredo's father lost his part of the custody. What's interesting (and what we had only just learned the morning of the case) is that he was planning to have Alfredo return to California full time as soon as possible.

Of course, we'll continue to keep Alfredo's father and his family as involved as they wish to be in his life. As long as we're welcome, we'll continue our visits to California so that he may grow up knowing their love.

Thank you so much for all of the prayers you've wrapped around our little family. Rich and I sat in the car the morning of the case and prayed to feel God's arms around us, to know that we are not alone. We prayed that we would act with dignity and be guided by Faith, not fear.

(source for image)