"Give a man enough rope and he'll hang himself" ~American Proverb

This is a quote that while I was growing up was a popular saying in my house, mainly because my parents had so many foster kids and adopted 8 (on top of the 4 they had biologically).  It was a reoccurring phrase that my mother often said when talking about my younger sister's case.  Her father did the bare minimum to keep his parental rights for a whopping 5-6 years before he hanged himself on the rope that DCF gave him. It is now very comforting to hear my mother say that to me about Gino and the case we have currently against his "mother". But it is certainly ringing true right now!

PRESCRIPTION DRUG: A drug requiring a prescription, as opposed to an over-the-counter drug, which can be purchased without one. The word "prescription" comes from the Latin "praescriptus" compounded from "prae", before + scribere, to write = to write before. Historically, a prescription was written before the drug was prepared and administered.

We were told by the "mother's" previous attorney (as well as the testing center and her current lawyer) that she was being prescribed Methadone (for chronic back pain) and Xanax (alprazolam, for anxiety and depression).  So of course for the last year her urines have been coming back containing Methadone and Benzodiazepines. In what we think was an effort of her PCP trying to cover his ass for illegally prescribing medications to her, we received a letter stating that she is being prescribed Ibuprofen, Methadone and Soma....Wait where is the xanax?! Looking up Soma, it is a meprobamate NOT a Benzo! So not only is she misusing her "prescriptions" to get a high like she did off of heroin, but she is now taking a medication and failing for it that is NOT prescribed to her. Not only that, but mixing Soma with a painkiller (certain dosages of each) ALSO creates a heroin like high. Keeping our fingers crossed that she doesn't pop up with a prescription from somewhere, although if she does she is still abusing these medications and she would also have to be going to multiple doctors (which is a telltale sign of addiction) which would all look bad on her regardless. Our lawyer pretty much is freaking awesome, I definitely push her a lot and she is a saint for dealing with all of my emails and questions (it's not just to be pushy it's to learn more myself, I am after all thinking about taking her paralegal class). She is working her butt off to figure out how to catch this woman. We are on for an emergency motion to suspend visitation (suspend until we have enough evidence to push to terminate) on Friday, and oddly enough I am feeling at ease about the upcoming court date, usually I feel extremely anxious, I get horrible heart palpitations and feel very panicky and stressed, after all that is my husbands and my kid that is affected by all of this. It would be completely insane for the Judge not to see eye to eye with us AND with the GAL who WILL be there this Friday to say what she saw (which was an inebriated "mother") and state that she doesn't think that she is fit or mentally capable of being in his life. So I think we have a pretty good case, the only reason currently we are only fighting to suspend is because we need the expert opinion for the case on the levels and abuse going on. I am having so much trouble getting in contact with the man we think would be perfect for the job (who happened to be my husbands AA counselor and had played a big part in his sobriety), and an "expert" charges a good 475 an HOUR, which is WAY out of our pay-bracket, I wish there was a magic money tree that would pay for these insane court expenses that are deeming themselves necessary. We have our awesome lawyer who as far as lawyer's expenses go is "cheap" and very fair with how she calculates our bills, but that bill is piling up and it is looking more and more like any extra money we have AND all of our tax refund will be to pay her off! There is NO way we can afford an expert, but we need one, so our best bet would be this guy who is proving to be almost impossible to locate!

Regardless, Friday we have court, and I definitely have a feeling that it will go in our favor and am of course nervous but am also oddly at ease about the fast approaching date. There is supposed to be a visit between Gino and his egg donor this Sunday, but with any luck and a good ruling from the Judge there will be no more visits. 

"I'm a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it's bad or good."

~ Sandra Bullock