We started off in the ceremonial court room because we had a jury panel of almost 100 potential jurors. We took pictures when the courtroom was empty because win or lose, this is one of the craziest things we have ever done together and we didn't want to forget it!
The doors were about to open, letting in the almost 100 potential jurors. I leaned over to Tina and said, "Did you ever, in a million years, think you would be sitting on this side of the courtroom? What in the heck are we doing?! We are so stupid!"
This fight wouldn't have been possible without the amazing friends who picked up our kids after school each day and took such good care of them. The kids had so much fun that it really lessened the stress and worry over us not being around as much or over the significance of the decision that was about to be made for them.
Texting to Tina: "Does this look okay?" The DA told us to dress professionally, but not too flashy. She said the jury judges you based on appearance, so I spent more time during this week than I do in a regular year fixing my hair, clothes, and make up. I practiced doing my hair for weeks beforehand to tame it into a socially acceptable standard. I watched Youtube tutorials on applying eye shadow (that probably no one could see because I still used it sparingly). I borrowed "court clothes" from friends so that I wouldn't have to go shopping.
Since we started on a Friday, we had a weekend before our case finished. Saturday was nice to have a break from the stress.
We used the opportunity to have a sibling splash play day in the backyard since our weekdays had been too busy to fit it in. B&J and Samantha.
Allie, Brenda, Isaac, and Abby
Abby and Isaac watched Jurassic Park with us after we tucked the Littles into bed. They did great with the scary content, but then of course slept in our room. This is Abby under her pile of stuffed animals:
Monday Morning, J begged to wear his "fancy tie" in honor of teacher appreciation week. OMGee so cute.
Factoids:
- Bio Mom's attorney used every break time to try to convince Bio Mom to relinquish her rights. We overheard him doing this several times. He was a good guy and we liked him a lot.
- Court TV shows do nothing to prepare you for the excruciatingly morning moments of trials. If you could have boiled our trial down to the most interesting 5 hours, it would have been very exciting.
- Court TV also doesn't show what happens behind the scenes. The banter of the lawyers when the jury wasn't in the room was very amusing. Even Bio Mom's lawyer joined in, or started much of the frivolity. And us foster parents were part of all of it and became pretty close with the lawyers in the room (except for Bio Dad's lawyers who were always cold).
- Our jury consisted of 4 minorities and 8 whites; 9 women and 3 men; all age groups
Wednesday morning...decision day
Feeling hopeful, and maybe a bit silly...
Our teammates, Harold and Tina.
Since Bio Dad walked away, we used a moment at lunchtime to delete the reoccurring phone call event from the calendar. Ah, satisfaction.
Took a silly picture of us waiting for the jury to deliberate. We were trying to set my family at ease with our silliness because they were so nervous for us!
Then we decided to walk up the 15 floors to our courtroom, just to waste time while waiting.
After we won (YAY!) We hugged and thanked each of these beautiful ladies, who are our heroes. From left to right: Stephanie, Attorney for CPS; Ashley, our caseworker; Jeanice, the DA; Natasha, our former caseworker and now Ashley's supervisor. They thanked us for intervening and said it wouldn't have ended this way if we hadn't.
We awkwardly hugged our lawyer too at the end, but he is a bit less emotional than this fabulous group of ladies! Our lawyer is quite a character and we made a list of very (to us) entertaining Polland-isms:
- "Did you hear how I complemented all the lawyers? They're all dip shits!"
- "Did you see what I did?"
- "I don't even care!"
- "They call me the terminator!"
- "He is just a sperm donor!"
- "I'm going to pounce on him...like a panther!"
- "Pretty smart, huh!?"
- When Bio Dad relinquished: "I would have torn him up. I'm very disappointed!"
- "The list"
- "One Thousand Points of Light"
- "This is already won!"
- "This trial is over!"
That night, we gathered our foster families to tell the kids the news together.
This was the moment they realized they would get to stay with us forever! My favorite part was where Briana ran from the couch and leapt into my arms!
When Briana was so anxious last week, I asked her to help plan our victory party. She picked a glow disco dance party so we did it!
The next morning, the kids celebrated with Ms. Suzanne!
The day after the verdict was very surreal. We were all exhausted and a few of us had meltdowns here and there. I felt like a huge cloud was lifted but still just felt so raw from the battle we had just endured. This is totally nerdy so humor me, but it felt like the final battle scene of Lord of the Rings where Sauron's tower finally falls. There's this silent awe kind of moment where all the action stops and people who have been battling for so long to defeat the evil look up and realize it is won. That is what it felt like. We are battered and exhausted but the battle is won. And now we look back on it all and see how worth it it all was! We see how God's hand was at work to provide for their emancipation long before we ever even met these kids. If He hadn't led us to downsize our home two years ago, I doubt we would have been able to financially sustain this fight. If He hadn't of led us to the lawyer we had, we would not have won. We are convinced that because of our lawyer's connections, he alone had the influence to win this fight. The system is broken and it shouldn't be this way, but it is, and God led us through it to victory. We are so so thankful and we now understand God's love for us so much more. We were "all-in" for these kids, willing to give up everything to save them and most of the time they are completely unaware and unthankful for the sacrifice. Oh but how we love them! How God loves us even we were are completely unaware and unthankful!
This precious boy is MINE FOREVER!
This Red Hot Mess is MINE FOREVER!
We thank every person who helped, supported us, and prayed over this process! We feel that this experience has brought a piece God's kingdom here on earth for these children, but also for our community that stepped up to serve these helpless ones.
