Court

During foster class, our trainers touched on the topic of court.  They didn't dissuade us from attending our fosters court dates, but they didn't exactly encourage us either.  It was more of a "go if you want" vibe.  By this time, I had been talking to Baby O's foster mom on a fairly regular basic and we had become friends.  Not only did that mean that I got to hear about Baby O and how he and his brother were doing, but I got to see them too.  Tiernen even started babysitting them every few weeks, and sometimes at our house.  It really was the best of arrangements.   She told me she always went to court, and I was keen to follow her lead.

I had Baby O for such a short time that I didn't even know that court happened, let alone attended any of them.  Apparently after a child is placed in care, CPS and The Agency has to appear before the judge and a determination has to be made about whether the removal was valid.

No one from The Agency told us about court dates. I heard about it from Erin.  I wanted to support her because I knew she was doing such great work and working so hard on her recovery.  I also wanted to show the court a united front, wanted to show that we were working together as "Team Bram" to make sure that this little guy never experienced a disruption in the continuum of love.  That's what we kept focusing on:  we were working together to do this for Bram.

I took a half day of school so I could attend.  Darryl couldn't go, and I made plans to meet Erin and her family there.  The building is very intimidating.  There are armed guards (police officers?) at the front and you are scanned and have to go through a metal detector.  In retrospect, I realize that yes, it's court.  Not all the people there are for family court issues.  Some people there are dangerous.  Some are criminals, some are mentally ill, some are on drugs, some are carrying weapons... some are just scared parents trying to get their kids back.  Still, it was intimidating.  I wasn't even allowed to bring my crochet hook in because it was a potential weapon.  I had to bring it back to my car and was almost late.

I sat with Erin and her family in the lobby and showed them the most recent Bram pics.  They had all been texted to Erin, but her mother and Ibro hadn't seen many of them.  Nearby was Bram's case planner, Erin's court-appointed lawyer who met with her for all of five minutes, and a representative from CPS.  I went over and introduced myself to him as Bram's foster mother and he said, "oh, I know who you are."  I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.  At one point, the case planner came over to me and said, "what are you doing here?"  I told her I was there to support Erin. She seemed shocked.

We waited a very long time.  We watched families come and go in the various rooms.  Some people were in prison jumpsuits and handcuffs, surrounded by armed police officers.  It was very surreal.  

Erin was called into a conference room with her attorney for no more than ten minutes.  Then the attorney and the various representatives from CPS and their lawyer and the case worker went into a room.  Neither Erin nor Ibro were invited in.  They came out five minutes later and the case manager announced, "okay, court next on..." and then she gave us a date a month away.

That was it?

They didn't ask for Erin to talk to the judge.  They didn't ask me.  Apparently all that was done through the lawyer.  It seemed very... detached.

They were making decisions about her baby without her input?  Without talking to me?  It just seemed really odd.  I wasn't the only one.

Overall, it was a complete waste of time.  I wished I didn't take off from work.

These repeated monthly for four months.

We never got inside the judge's chambers.  Not once.