I don't know what to call this

Funny that I wanted to post too, just a day after Becca!  Surely this blog will pick back up.


Verbal vomit beginning....

I guess we can start with the nonstop migraine that's plagued me for the past week.  I've hardly been able to eat from the nausea.  I discovered the best thing is to sit down with food in front of me, and every couple hours I'll eat a few bites.  It's even hard to drink water without feeling it coming back up.

I had an allergy test yesterday, and before that I had to be off any allergy medication for three days.  Which means I was blowing my nose raw and had to sleep sitting up so I could breathe.  Not a great environment for all this stuff I'm about to share:

Tack on some family drama (relatives on my dad's side.)  Since this blog is viewable by the Internet I will just summarize it without using names or details:  My aunt and uncle are suing their daughter, R, for custody of her son, C.  If you remember my wedding, R was the one who did my makeup.  My aunt believes there is neglect on R's part; I reached out and got her side of the story and now I am taking R's side.  She's made some mistakes and I believe she learned from them and now I'm on her side.  This has been stressful the last couple months as it unfolds.

A couple side stressors that involved us:

-My aunt broke into R's facebook account, found some messages I'd sent R, and used them in a court exhibit to try and shoot down the character reference I wrote R.
-Originally, R's plan b was to ask us to take C if the court ruled her unfit.  It turns out since it's a third party custody hearing and not CPS, that's not an option for her.  But for the last two months, we wondered if we were suddenly going to be parents of a five-year old.
-Family relationships are going to be changed forever.  My aunt has always had problems with my mom/dad/family so we aren't actually that surprised at how she's treating R.  But she's convinced the rest of the family of her side.  She has been known to exclude or un-invite my family to family events (classy, I know.) She's willing to hurt relationships to feed her own dislike.  What will future family events be like?  Will they attend?  Will we attend?  Will they ask us not to attend?  Will they even let us know there is an event or will they cut us from the email chain?  Do we even want to attend?

I am so grateful for:

-R, who is so grateful for my support.  I am the only family member that cared to hear her side of the story or reached out to her.  I doubt she is a believer and I am pretty certain that my mom and I are the only Christians involved in her life right now.
-My mom, who took R's side and is being emotional support for both of us.
-R's boyfriend, who is lending her money for the attorney, and also helping with her bills, since court fees have drained her savings account (she is debt-free and works full time).

Court

The court date was yesterday.  Before court I had an allergy testing appointment, so I had forty injections, nearly passed out (I did actually faint at the allergy clinic two weeks ago from a shot).  Plus I had a full force migraine, day five I think.  So then I went straight from the clinic to meet my mom at Panera.


From there we went to the court.   On R's side it was side it was just her, her boyfriend, and me, and my mom.  I thought it would be really awkward to see R's family in court and I was afraid of getting into an argument, but for the most part everyone just avoided looking at everyone else and that was fine with me.

The judge seemed very fair.  (In fact, she is the same judge who did a custody hearing for another friend, when I attended a hearing a couple years ago to support a friend!  Even the same courtroom!)  She said there is going to be a trial a year from now, and in the meantime C can stay with R, as long as a court-ordered drug test is negative.  In the meantime, another state investigation will happen (R's parents already opened a CPS case against her, which CPS closed as unfounded.)  R's lawyer yesterday told me I'd probably be part of the investigation as far as being quizzed about her character and habits and parenting.  R isn't involving her friends in this issue and so has very few people who know this much of the story.

Now

My migraine is so much better.  Still there, but better.  Nausea comes back whenever I eat but if I just sit for an hour, it seems to go down.  Zofran and antacids are helping too.  (I just learned, Zofran is what they give people on chemotherapy for their nausea.  And now I remember one neurologist told me, he believes nausea from migraines can be worse than nausea from chemo.)  I think I will take Zofran now since I just had lunch and feel a bit queasy.

R and her boyfriend invited my mom and me to go out to dinner with them and their kids tonight (Joe's working).  (Her boyfriend has a daughter from a previous marriage).  So grateful they are letting us near.

I am so impressed with my cousin.  Every bit of dirt she has ever done has been exposed, everything she is ashamed of.  She didn't try to hide it.  She told me all of it, even the stuff she knows I'm against.  And after all that I could say, "I may not agree with your lifestyle (sleeping with boyfriend, etc.) but that doesn't make a difference in whether or not you should get to keep your son and it has nothing to do with how much I love you."