Bursting to Blog

What a weekend, its definitly time for a blog. Some of this will be review from my last couple bulletin's.

First off, my best friend for the last 18 years bought a Gaming Hobby Store in Coeur d'Alene Idaho about 6 months ago. Things have been going somewhat rough since then, the business hasn't been doing as well as expected, his father died of a heart attack at the age of 50 just a few months ago, this combined with the stresses involved in having an infant and a 2 year old.. well, we'll just say that 2007 was rough for him.

Just 13 days into the new year Russ got a call telling him that his store, his second home, his families livlihood, was on fire with smoke billowing out of it. The building housed several apartments and 4 businesses (one of which wasn't in use I believe), it was nearly 100 years old and in dis-repair.

The investigation as to the cause of the fire is ongoing, they do believe they have identified the general location where the fire began. I drove up to help russ as soon as I heard, his store was still burning when I arrived. Everyone is pretty much taken with shock at the moment.

I went with him to get some legal advice on the subject and I can't tell you just how surreal of a feeling it is to sit in an attourney's waiting room reading a newspaper where the headline event is the very event you are in the law office to discuss.

He and his family seem to be doing well, I'll be checking in with him often.

Strange timing, but while we were taking a look at his building during the daylight earlier today I got a call from my lawyer Beth. The timing of the call made me feel uneasy about it, but it was definitly good news.

My original trial was set for sometime in August (like the 10th or so I believe), about a week prior to that trial Nicole's new lawyer attempted to seperate Jadon from the case on the grounds that there were legal remedies to attend to before addressing Common Law (De Facto Parent status). This ended up delaying the original trial, fortunatly the motion to seperate Jadon from the case was denied.

My next trial date was set for the week of Thanksgiving in November. It was to be on a Monday, and literally on the friday beforehand a hearing addressing new information based on a similar case that finished just a few weeks prior was put forth. This new information allowed them to attempt to seperate Jadon from the case again, the new trial was cancelled and a hearing was set to determine if Jadon would still be involved in the case or not the following Monday.

Before I continue I will give some information as to what it would mean to "Seperate" Jadon from the case. Essentially it would be removing my ability to have any right to him at all. When determining custody of Tristan, Jadon would not be considered as his Mother would be the only eligible parent. Legally it could destroy my case, though I would have still had a strong chance to get Tristan.

Technically this meant that Nicole would immediatly have moved Jadon down to Phoenix, seperating our boys. In my opinion she has crossed a line, fully willing to hurt our children in her attempts to win. The boys would never be split up though, if I lost this new hearing we had already made arrangements for a deal that involved keeping the boys in school for the rest of this school year up here with me, and then they would move to Phoenix while I would follow and 50/50 custody would be shared. But I was only considering this to prevent the horrid act of Nicole seperating our children, the divorce is more than enough, I feel that anything more would be devestating.

The hearing was held on the Monday following Thanksgiving and our Judge "reserved" his decision, which means I pretty much didnt sleep for the week following, suspecting it could come at any moment and that Jadon could be taken away from me. My lawyer gave us equal chances to win or lose this hearing.

Finally after 6 weeks or so of waiting we have heard a decision. The Judge has sided with me! My lawyer and I both believe this move has weekend Nicole's case, and in turn, strengthened my own. Winning my Children in court is more likely than ever before.

Just so everyone know, my court date is coming up (again), february 12th-13th.

Well, the snow storm is pretty bad outside right now (I couldnt see anything, I couldnt even tell where the sides of the road were most of the time or IF I was sliding or what, it was the most brutal drive Ive ever had), so I am going to get some sleep as I will have to drive in the aftermath tommarow morning for work.

Despite the bad news Ive mentioned, I am very very psyched about the good news.