I had filed suit for custody of Blessing some weeks ago. Since then, we have been in constant meetings with lawyers and in reviewing notes of past events and actions of his parents. We also had to take a lot of time developing a witness list.

By the today we had nine very good witnesses (all parents and upstanding members of the community). We also had a detailed cronology of every instance of his family's abusive and neglectful actions toward Blessing.

When we got to court, we discovered that Blessing's mother was not coming. Further, they had six witnesses that were to come. Four backed out.

I was the first to testify. Their lawyer used every manipulative tactic one can imagine. He tried for ten minutes to get me to say they were good parents. He also pounded me on the question of my sexual preference. As my first preference is women, I was able to testify honestly to every question. He also spent a considerable amount of time on my prior durg usage. Basicly, I open a can of verbal whoop-ass and cut him off at every turn.

Each of my five witnesses that testified, testified to the exceptional manner in which Blessing is being raised and two of these told of the history of Blessing's parents. After being unable to trip up any of these witnesses and having had some very manipulative questions turned around to hurt his client, their lawyer agreed to stipulate that the other four witnesses would provide similar testimony and allowed them to be entered into the record as providing testmony concurrent to those who had already testified.

Then the two lawyers and the judge took Blessing into chambers for to interview him. He blew them away and charmed the sox off the judge. He also demonstrated a considerable ability to communicate by cutting up their attorney to the point that it provoked the judge to laugh.

Finally, Blessing's dad took the stand. He lied over and over and over. HaHaHa. Blessing had already verified my testimony so his father's testimony was known to be full of lies as he ws giving it. He also had to admit to multiple lies on the stand.

Finally, during cross examination, he hung his head and began to mumble answers. My lawyer beat him over the head with the idea that Blessing should be important enough to look at the court and audibly answer questions. He was humiliated. HaHaHa.

Each of his witnesses tried to make him look good. They failed. One was forced to admit that he had an extensive history of alcohol and drug abuse and that he had only quit for the purpose of court (directly contradicting his earlier testimony). The other finally told of repeated instances of his being drunk and high when he was visiting Blessing. He also revealed multiple instances wherein Blessing's father had been fired for alcohol and drug use.

Then testimony was closed.

The judge began to recap the testimony and began to cite a lot of case law. Finally he laid all the paper work down and said this case was unprecedented in this state. There had not been a case of a non-family member raising a child for three years prior to seeking custody that he had been able to find.

He did use some tangentially related cases and pieced together a ruling. The ruling said:

Blessing's father had clearly abandonned him early in life.

Blessing's father had waited too late in Blessing's life to try to fix it and then it was only under duress.

Both of Blessing's prents are prone to alcohol and drug addiction to the detriment of Ble ssing.

Both parents had inflicted pain and suffering on Blessing and the mother had committed physical abuse on him.

Blessing has a strong emotional attachment to ABO.

ABO has provided a stable and moral home conducive to Blessing's development as a mentally, physically, spiritually, and intellectually individual.

And,

Blessing has verbally stated a very strong preference to be raised by ABO and not to have to see his parents.

Final Ruling

Sole physical and legal custody of Blessing is to be placed with ABO (with no review period).

All support paid by Blessing's father is to be paid to ABO.

Blessing's mother shall be referred to the state Attorney General's ofice for possible prosecution for child support abuse and child abuse.

The mother shall be denied all visitation except that which ABO voluntarily chooses to allow her to have.

The father's visitation shall be determined through a concensus of the litigants and their counsel (with a strong reccomendation for any visitation to be supervised).

Epilogue

Blessing and I hugged and cried and laughed and played and generally lost it in the court room. His dad (well, former dad) left in shame.

Blessing will have a party at the same local park (he is inviting app. 200 kids and their parents). We are also inviting all of the witnesses. This should be expensive. He's wanting everyone from the party to come see his ball game afterwards.