I'm holdin' on...

This week has been incredibly rough for me. We had a very good friend, Sal, come in from NY and spend a few days with us. He is going through a very rough time with a divorce and custody battle, which he lost on Monday. There are a ton of circumstances that indicate to everyone with a brain that he should have custody of his two beautiful little girls, but for some strange reason their mom won custody. I am devastated by the judge's decision in this case, because their mom has no stable place to live, she's been at 4 different places within the last two months. She has no transportation, she has no job, she's had two entire months to get something going, and still, there's nothing.

Sal has an apartment which is set up for the entire family, and was before their mom took the girls all the way back across the country. He has a GOOD job, a stable job, one that can provide for his girls. He has vehicles to get them to and from anywhere they could need to go. He is established in his home, job, and has a stable environment in which to raise those girls, yet the judge that he got in his hearing decided that it would be best for the girls to stay in Texas. That's it, that was what his judgement was based on. Whatever happened to "the best interests of the children?"

I just don't get it. The judge said that he didn't want the state of TX to lose control over the girls. But, there is no order for their mom to stay in this state. She has no family here, they are all in Florida, and she's not even speaking to them, they wanted the girls to go to their dad! I mean, seriously, the state doesn't have anything to do with kids until something bad happens, why does it matter what state they are in? New York has the same courts that Texas has, and neither one would be keeping close watch over them.

After all of this, I am incredibly upset. Those girls are like family to me, and it breaks my heart to know that they are so close to me yet I can't see them. I've struggled with depression for a while now, and this is definitely not helping. I've gotten into a funk that I can't seem to shake, and the bad part is I realize it, and there's nothing I can do. I made an appointment with a counselor for next week through the Employee Assistance Program that is provided through Matthew's job, so hopefully that will make me feel better. I saw her once before, right after I had Abby, I think, and it did make me feel better to have someone listen to me and tell me that I wasn't just nuts.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my worries, it's always better to write things down for me.