Wait for it... Wait for it.. Wait some more...

The court date scheduled for today happened, but didn't have an outcome we expected. I'll run through the events of the day, just to give a taste of what went on.

I arrived at the courthouse in San Antonio this morning and seated myself in the hallway, notified the lawyer and caseworker that I had arrived, and proceeded to read a book while I waited. Several hours later, after 12 noon, our case was called into one of the courtrooms.

The children's lawyer, the family members' lawyer, and the judge went into the "chambers" to discuss privately. They were in there about fifteen minutes before they came out. Our lawyer looked mad enough to spit and their lawyer was smiling big, so I braced myself to hear that the twins would be leaving us.

Instead, the judge called another case forward and began speaking to that. (....) I sat there, feeling pretty absurd, not knowing if I should stay or go, but the other family stayed, so I decided to stay as well.

Once he finished with that case, the judge called forward the two lawyers again. He then announced that he was declining to rule on the case and was sending it to an actual trial in District Court. We will reconvene on February 26th for an announcement as to when this trial will begin.

And that was it. About a minute or two of actual action in the courtroom, and nobody got to speak. That was honestly a little disappointing. I had really thought hard about how I was going to articulate what I wanted to get across, politely and assertively, to express how much we love the girls and how well they are doing n our home.

We were dismissed and it was lunch time, so everyone filed out of the courtroom. The children's lawyer and I went to a small room to discuss. She clarified what had happened to me,

Basically, in a nut shell:

• There will be at least two possibly three visitations scheduled between now and February 26th. There will be a therapist and an investigator observing both the visits and how the children react following the visits, which has been an issue. They will also hope to observe the children in their foster homes to see the interaction with the foster parents as well.
• On February 26th, we will reconvene, basically just to hear the trial dates, but any new developments and regular updates will be shared.
• The trial will most likely be either the end of March or beginning of April. The lawyer said to expect three or four days of proceedings. She would like both me and my husband to be there and we'll be called to testify. So this is real-live-actual trial, with witnesses and evidence and arguments and all that jazz.

The reason why this case is going to trial instead of being figured out like "regular" foster cases is because of the lack of agreement between Child Protective Services and the lawyers. The caseworker and the children's lawyer are against the children returning, the family's lawyer is for it, and nobody's budging and it's getting contentious. That kind of stalemate doesn't usually happen, at least this far into the case. As I mentioned in my last post, the investigation into the circumstances that led to the children's removal has been deemed "inconclusive". This all adds up to a situation that is complicated enough to go to the next level.

We are incredibly relieved that the twins are not leaving us yet. Every day is a gift, and never more than when you feel like you're using borrowed time, so to speak. We'll continue to treasure the time we have with them, however long it ends up being.

I'll write more about our reactions another day; I just wanted to share the facts about what happened tonight. Right now, we know we'll all be just fine and that there's purpose yet in this crazy roller-coaster ride.

So many of you have been so supportive and reached out to share your encouragement. That means the world to us. God bless you all!