The Big Day

Finally March 25 rolled around. I was waking up extremely early to make sure I looked good and also Nixxon looked adorable because ha court was scheduled on her 2nd birthday.  I was pretty upset that I was not going to be able to spend all day with her on a special day, but I was going to be in court fighting for her.
I had lined up one of her friends mom to watch her for me while we went. I had asked my family to come to court with me. Including my aunts, uncles, grandmas, and cousins. My lawyer said it might show the judge that Nixxon has the support of a lot of family so we asked if they would come sit on my side of the court room.
It was so hard to drop Nixxon off not knowing what was going to happen in that court room.  My lawyer gave me some Ideas of what was going to happen.  Since this was Joe's court date( which I had actually filed a case against him to terminate his rights a few weeks before he has filed for temporary parent time) anyway my lawyer said that either they would start him off with a little supervised parent time or they would deny him that until my case was settled. Or the judge would go ahead and hear my case while we were there since he was the same judge assigned to us for my case, it was just In Juvenile court.  so it could have went a few ways.
So I dropped my little birthday girl off at her friends and told them it wouldn't be more than an hour, kissed her goodbye and headed back to my car.  My family drove together to the courthouse.  They asked me to say a prayer as we drove. I can't remember exactly how my prayer went but I know I asked that His will would be done.

When we pulled up we didn't recognize any bcause as cars so we sat in the car until we seen that my lawyer showed up. Suddenly a car comes flying in the parking lot and jumps a curb. A small lady got out and ran inside.  We all kind of laughed at her, well turns out it was Joe's lawyer.

Then Joe and his sister pulled up and walked in. So my family got out of the car.  Suddenly a majority of my family as in aunt's and uncles walked over to us. They all gave me words of encouragement and told me they would do anything to help out Nixxon and I. Most were taking time off work to come.  It ment so much to me.

Finally my lawyer showed up. He was impressed with how many people I rounded up to watch.  He walked us inside, we went through security and he told most of my family to head into the court room. My parents and I needed to go over some things before we went into the courtroom. Awkwardly this court house only had 1 room for clients/lawyers to meet in so we were shoved into an unfinished office because Joe had gotten to the to room first.  My lawyer just reminded my parents and I that if it didn't go our way in the courtroom not to act any different and if it went very well not to dance in the inzone. He gave me a little pep talk and told me everything was going to be okay. 

As we made our way to the court room,  Joe also made his way out of their meeting room. He opened the door for the courtroom and let his party in then held it open for my group. seriously?  He held the door open for me which was nice but I was going into that room trying to prove I was capable of raising my daughter on my own and I was perfect capable of holding my own door open. The urge to slap his head with that door was a very big urge.  Lucky for him it was a court room and there was a lot of cops around and I am sure it wouldn't have went over too well with all of them. So I simply walked through the door.

My family took up pretty much one whole side of the court room. Joe had. Few family members there but the support of my extended family stood out. After we all stood for the judge and he got going he even asked if they were all present for one case and ha we were. It ment so much that my family was there for me because going in front of a judge for anything is really nerve racking.

We had to listen to a couple of cases before ours started. Before I knew it our last names were called and my lawyers was headed to the table in front of the judge. He showed me where to sit and told me to not act nervous.  Which is extremely hard by the way if you cant imagine. 

Joe's lawyer started to present the case. I dont know half of what was said because it was like legal terms, and codes and laws. So I just sat there and tried not to fidget, look confident, yet humble. 

The judge started to talk about how he felt that Joes lawyer had filed their petition in the wrong court. This petition should have been filed in Juvenile court not district court. Joe's lawyer did not believe that was true so the judge gave us a few minutes to go discuss it and let the lawyers talk.

My lawyer took us out into the parking lot. He told my parents and I that he felt pretty confident about today. The only problem was that he found out that Joe's lawyers husband, and the judge were good friends so he was going going easy on her. So we just needed to stick to our guns. Then he decided it was time to go back in.

Once again we needed to wait for a few more cases to be heard. Some were criminal cases and those were kind of interesting to hear. I was teasing my lawyer that this was only scheduled to be a two minute things but here we still were an hour later. He laughed and said that he didn't have a clue it would be this long.

After a few more cases the judge was ready to hear ours again. I nervously yet confidently walked back up to the table and said a silent prayer for peace and confidence.  Joe's lawyer started to pretty much just say the same things. So once again he wanted to let the lawyers talk about it again so we left the table and I sat with my family while our lawyers went out and talked. I was really nervous at this point. The judge was giving her another chance to prove she filed in the right court. And what was she now telling my lawyer?

My lawyer came back into the court room and asked my parents and I to come with him. We got up and walked clear across the street into another building to make sure we had privacy to discuss things. He said that Joe's lawyer had just told him that Joe was now claiming that my parents and family had been going behind my back and telling him how he was not the father and he should stay away from me and such. We all just laughed about it. We all knew that was a lie and was twisting words way too much. He also told us about how we were still doing pretty good and he was confident about today. We talked about the next court date we had scheduled and how my family could not make it so we needed to reschedule it. This gave me hope that today would go well and my case would really be heard before Joe's was since I filed first. After about a half hour of talking we decided to head back.

Same thing we had to wait for a few more cases then the judge called for us.  Once again as I walked up there I prayed again.  I looked over at Joe to see him chomping down on his gum and being fidgety and bouncing his legs.  I was glad I didn't look like that.  Almost made me giggle a little. 

Once again the same arguments were being made. Finally my lawyer had a chance to speak.  He talked about how we already have a case pending in district court but Our date had been moved back by the other party so it hasn't had time to be determined yet.  Also how deciding to let Joe have temporary parent time could be harmful to Nixxon if the district court decided to terminate Joe's rights.

The judge agreed he also felt that we should just pretty much combine our cases together and make one case. My lawyer agreed.  Then we were dismissed!

I practically had just won! I knew I still had more battles to fight here soon but that was  one victory for me! Joe was not going to get temporary parent time just yet and that was good for us.

We were able to leave and go pick up Nixxon. I felt bad for being away so long on her birthday.  It was only scheduled for 2 minutes but instead we were there for over 3 hours. I was glad to be out of the courthouse and headed home to celebrate my baby turning two!