got u and lisa covered..you will get thru this..these kids keep seeing the love you have for them and eachother you will win them over.keep the faith.we prayer warriors are on the spot!!!thank the lord for small victories!

^^ Yes, small victories are indeed a blessing! Today looks to be harder (boy in tantrum mode all morning over nitpicky things), but hopefully things won't escalate when I go home for lunch shortly

I need continuous prayer in this situation. Had an extra helping of FAILsauce today and made a major boob of myself outside church (after a poignant message about serving others). I need to be able to depersonalize being hit, kicked, slapped, and bitten. I HATE IT. IT SUCKS. But I need to be able to let it go. Right now I'm have a VERY hard time doing just that. I can't get so wrapped up in it because it's not me. I know it's not me. In my head & heart I know that. But in the heat of the moment it's easy to get caught up in it & take it personally. That's what I need to avoid.

praying josh!!! i am praying you have support from family and friends.prayin maybe you can find a support group for foster parents.it may help as you are not alone! keep the faith and we will keep praying,buddy!

Okay, peoples, next court date is this coming Tuesday (11-10-09), court is at 8:45 AM. My wife Lisa will be there to represent us, and we're hoping the judge will see all the evidence presented & be able to make a strong case for our side. Prayer warriors - can we get your support that morning?

prayed mate, bless you guys and keep relying on Him.

An update - next hearing has been moved up to December 1st, and by what's been indicated, it's a permanency hearing. So we're hoping that the judge will look at all the evidence, see that the biological mother isn't doing her job, and end parental rights so we can get on with things & the kids can begin healing with a single, structured, loving environment.

Please pray on December 1st (court is @ 2 PM CST) for God's will to be done. Obviously we don't want the kids to home to their mother, but if that's what God wants then obviously we need to remain in His will. Also, continue to pray for patience with the kids for both myself & my wife - we sometimes have failings where we allow ourselves to get caught up in their tantrums, and that does no one any good.

Okay folks, this could be it! Tomorrow is a hearing that our specialist is calling "the big one"! She believes it will be the deciding time for the kids & where they're going to go. She doesn't believe (like us) that their mom has done enough to ensure their return back home, but she has told us to prepare for the worst, because the system isn't perfect & sometimes the decision is just baffling. So here's where we're at: I'm NOT asking for prayer that court would go our way. What we ARE asking for is that God's will be done tomorrow during court. We realize that it is selfish of us to ask for what we want, when ultimately it's His will that needs to be done. So tomorrow at 2 PM Central Standard Time, we will be in teh courtroom, hearing all the arguments & evidence for and/or against the biological parents, and it's highly likely a decision will be made tomorrow to determine whether the kids go home or not.

praying josh! gods will be done...never doubt you and lisa are great parents and should( prayerfully not) the judge not rule in your favor.pls dont allow this to beat you both up! you are and will be great for these kids and we will pray for you and support you!

Father.

Into Your hands we commit this family to Your will, and for it to befall them. Whether good or bad, You alone know the paths they will go down, and You alone know what kind of glory those paths might bring to You. Let your name be exalted and Your Kingdom be glorified through this court hearing today: whether the court rules in their favor or not.

If the court rules in their favor, I come before you Father to ask that, despite their sinful nature, they will uphold Your will and Your glory continuously in these children, that they will raise these children to do the same, that they will show their children that You, Your Kingdom, and Your Word are to be held in the greatest glory, that they will abide in everything that is commanded of them in Your Word, and that should they fall short of your commands, they would be rebuked in Your name and brought to repentance before You (whether through Your Word, their parents, or through an Elder of the church)

If the court does not rule in their favor, I come before You Father to ask for comfort in Josh, his wife, as well as any children they currently have, as they prepare for and execute what will be a very difficult time of transition. Remind them that Your glory is supreme to their desires and You will be there with them throughout the process. Most importantly, remind them that the path You place them on will be the best path for You and Your Kingdom, and should Your glory be their goal, that they will esteem You above all things and will willingly walk down that road.

In the Name of Christ Jesus we ask of all of these things, for Your glory.

Amen.

how did the hearing go?

Not as we had hoped. Looks like the kids' mom & foster-daughter's dad have apparently met the original requirements laid out by the court for them to have a shot at getting the kids back. Now they've begun transition planning, which means that visits will change from 3 days a week to weekends, only partially supervised, and including a couple overnights. This will complicate things even more for us, and make our lives during the week more difficult, very likely. If the judge & everyone involved is satisfied w/ the progress that is being made w/ this transitional visitation & such, It's a very real possibility that we will no longer have the kids after the end of May.

This comes as a blow, because we had thought there would be a ruling today. The transitional plan thing seemed very much like a "backroom deal" to us because not all the lawyers were in on it, and it came up very suddenly. Up until this point, things had been proceeding toward adoption because the parents hadn't complied. There's still a discrepancy w/ some paperwork the court has been requesting & hasn't received yet, in regards to mental evaluations of the mother. These documents should have come to light months ago, and have been requested by the court at the last 3 hearings. Why the judge hasn't held them in contempt of court for failing to produce these documents thus far is beyond me. In addition, the daily documentation that we do to show the kids' progress & document issues surrounding visitations hasn't been reaching all the appropriate people. The case worker and case coordinator created their latest court report based only upon the documentation they received from the mother's side of the story, and when she was questioned about how she could have created the report w/o all the facts, she just shrugged her shoulders. It's a sad state of affairs, as far as we're concerned.

Thus, our plan is to write the judge a letter expressing our concerns over how things are proceeding, and to get the foster boy's lawyer involved (because he has been left out of the loop on much of this, despite the boy's father still having full legal rights), so hopefully someone will go to bat on this.

You could have the "ruling" appealed under the grounds of failure to submit the documents on time and completed.

Contempt of court ALONE would probably be more than sufficient to kill their chances.