Asking for updates???

A lot has happened since the last post, a 2-hr visitation & a court hearing. The 2-hour visitation was just like all the other visitations, except it was at a Chuckie-Cheese instead of a park. The SW had to see our house, so she picked Thomas up at our house. A prayer has been answered that he doesn't get as upset when the SW shows up to take him. We want him to know that she is a safe person. He actually reached his arms up to her when she said "let's go." Jim & I were going to meet the SW near the visitation place so we could pick-up Thomas and go to Sea World, again. Suprisingly the 2 hours went by rather quickly.......Praise God!! The SW said that he stays right by her and reaches for her hand, not the BM. He doesn't know her, so he just kind of goes about his business as she follows him. He enjoyed playing on the cars (esp. with steering wheels). The first thing the SW told us when she brought him back to us, was you might want to use anti-bacterial wipes on his hands. Guess that tells you how clean the place was. We were close to Sea World, and since we have season passes, we went there to play for a few hours. Thomas loves the play-area for kids. We spent about 45 minutes there in the play-area. So now we are back to our 1 visitation a week, until parental rights are cut. The other update is the trial to cut her parental rights has now been pushed from July 1st to July 22nd. It has nothing to do with the case, except that the county has laid-off the attorneys for these cases. It's a long and confusing story, so I will spare you the details. Thomas' attorney will stay the same, and our SW and attorney will stay the same. It more or less affects the BM's attorney. We have been assured by the SW that we know the end result, it's just the due process to get there. Thomas' attorney and the SW both agreed that this case needs to move forward, as we know what's going to happen since she's lost 3 other children. So until then, we will continue the weekly visits.

Jim & I will need to be present for the trial as the judge & attorney's may want us to testify and share pictures. The SW said sometimes the judge may ask us how we feel about visitations and how often. If that comes up, we are leaning towards 1 a year. It would be a supervised visit at a county building on his Birthday. Once rights are terminated there is a scheduled supervised "good-bye" visit. This whole process is long and a bit emotionally draining. But we know that God already has everything taken care of, so we don't need to worry. HOWEVER, on July 15th there will be a hearing to verify that all attorneys are on-board. If she decides to just give up there, then we won't go to trial. She has expressed to the SW that she knows how this is going to end. We just pray that her heart will be softened and that she will accept that Thomas is being loved, cared for in all areas and in the best place he can be.

God has convicted my heart (with the help of a friend name Lori) that I need to pray for his BM rather than our needs. God already knows our desires and is already blessing us beyond our own imagination. She is in need of a Savior. Her life is headed in a destructive path, so it's our job to pray for her that one day her heart would be changed and that she'd ask Christ into her life. She is not a bad person, she's just made bad mistakes. It's not our place to judge, just pray and share the truth.