duet_4-8

Well....

It went very long and very slow....but I am no longer married. Things went my way for the most part; he has to continue counseling and do hair follicle tests every 90 days, and I am allowed to speak with the therapist as is my oldest son. That has to do with the mediated visitation order on our minor child, which still stands. EXAH (WOW IT"S OFFICIAL!!!) has to pay child support on the first day of every month, back child support of 5237.00, 1/2 of the debt (about 8,000.00), 1/2 of the costs for getting the house ready to sell (3000.00), and the judge continued on the contempt motions from last year pending his response to the rulings today. The judge also changed the mediated order re: the mortgage on this house to read that he has to continue to pay 1/2 after June 30 until it sells. In the mediated agreement, I was to take the whole thing then. He was very obviously trying to obstruct the sale of the house. The only thing that I would say went in his favor was the value on his tools, but I could care less about that.

My pastor sat there through the whole thing, bless his heart. We let my middle son be excused from testifying so he could go to class, but my oldest son testified and exah had his attorney ask him some really ugly questions. My son was awesome; I believe he made the difference for his little brother. I was on the stand for probably 3 hours total; every single question that my attorney asked me, exah would talk to his attorney; he was very rude. Some of the stuff he came up with was pretty far out in left field but in the end, I know that the judge knew it because of the way he ruled. And add to that all the documentation that I had, and my "evil lesbain man-hating attorney" :rof exah got very befuddled when she was questioning him; it was really rather sad....in a funny sort of way.....

I'm not really sure what exactly my pastor took away from the whole thing because I didn't talk to him after, but my son did. The pastor heard some of the things that exah was telling his attorney to ask our son so I'm sure he heard the same when I was on the stand. Exah didn't see the pastor when he first came in, but when the judge came in and we had to stand, he saw him and the boys both said that they had never seen a look like that come across their dad's face before. They said it was priceless.

The pastor did catch my eye several times and wink or give me a thumbs up when I was testifying. It was HUGE for me that he was there. I really wasn't even nervous. He went out and talked with my son after he spoke, too, and that was a major comfort to him and to me. The young man was obviously trying very hard to not get emotional, but his voice cracked several times when he was talking about his relationship with his father and some of the things that his father has said to him. I even heard exah tell his attorney to ask our son 'how many times he has called me in the last year', like our son was the villain in the relationship. I was very proud of my boy; he held to his guns even though he was on the verge of tears and told the court exactly why he broke contact with his father and exactly why he was concerned for his little bro.

In a nutshell, I am very pleased with the way it went. And I am VERY glad it's over. Love you guys!!