The Conclusion of the Matter at Hand

Mike is not going to be returning to our home. It has been one horrible day and the next few days only promise to be worse. In order for this to happen, we have to begin a year of court involvement in our lives. So, we managed to have a 2 day break from being under a “CHIPS” (Child in Need of Protection or Services) Petition. It was so nice to have that burden lifted, and now we had to bring it back on ourselves.

Our only other choice is to voluntary terminate our own parental rights. We have sworn we would never do that and have told our kids over and over and over again that they will always be our kids, even if they can’t live with us. We don’t want to send the message that we would “disown” or “Give up on” a kid, no matter how how bad their behavior gets. Even if they can’t live with us, we still want to keep our promise.

So we are in a dilemma. With many financial issues pressing on us right now, most of which I can’t discuss publicly, we don’t want to have to hire an attorney and travel back for court every 90 days or more for the next year. We don’t want to sit in the hearings where MIke tries to make us take the blame for every mistake he makes.

But within 72 hours we have to be in court. If it happens on Monday, Bart will have to go alone, which nobody would want to do. I’ll be in Arizona visiting my parents -- and I’d rather be in court alone than be somewhere else when he has to go alone. I will feel awful for him if he does. Or, it could take place on Friday, requiring us to change many plans we are trying to make to get the kids over to Mankato to see where we are going to live.