She says it's over - Part 23

[DadNotQuitting]

As you all can obviously see, I've been away for a while - and there is A LOT going on. I'll do my best to spare you all the details, but here are the highlights.....

* On Christmas, after my wife and I had a decent level of contact throughout December (in violation of the temp restraining order), I called to see how the kids day went (they were with me until the previous night). W got on the phone, and meekly told me that she wants the two restraining orders to go away and that she will start the process. Can't tell you how happy this made me.

* Shortly after New Years, W told me on the phone that she changed her mind and that she wants the two TROs to stay in place. Ugh....

* In mid-January, the temporary restraining order that was put in place by the District Attorney (because I violated the original TRO, so now I was under two of them) was made permanent for three years. It is a complete no contact order. The only thing it allows is for a peaceful exchange of the children. I was not to email, call, sent a note, nothing. Essentially, my children's parents were to not speak or communicate ANYTHING until 2011. My attorney even informed me that simply giving her a check, placed in our kids backpack, would violate the order. Essentially, my wife screwed herself with this. This was on a Friday.

* The following Monday, on my attorney's advice, I applied for and was granted a TRO against my wife based on the fact that I fear that she is going to contact me and get me to violate the order. She had come to my house a couple times (to drop things off) without me knowing, and I can't risk this. My attorney said that if she tricked me into violating the order, I'd go to jail for a minimum of 60 days and that the court would grant her immediate full custody of the kids. I'd be lucky to visit them one hour per week in a supervised conference room. OK, so now we have three restraining orders. Perfect......

* Starting in December, W and I have been attending court-ordered co-parent counseling, except we don't go together, we do it individually. Twice the cost and a quarter of the effectiveness.

* Sunday, Feb. 10th, I get a call on my phone from D8's cell phone. It's Ss10 who tells me "mommy needs to talk to you, so don't hang up. S6 is hurt and needs to go the the emergency room" My heart sinks. W gets on the phone, somewhat frantic, tells me S6 fell over and hit his head on the sharp corner of a DVD player and is gashed and bleeding all over the place. She called the ER already and they said to bring him in, but it's most likely not a terrible emergency, even though there's a lot of blood. S6 is alert, not crying, and now playing a game. She wants me to take him to the ER, I tell her I'm about 20 miles away but will get there right away. D8 calls me ten minutes later to say that they are taking him and to meet at the hospital. W is cordial to me there, and after his is initially examined, they think he's fine and want the doctor to look at him, but it will be a while. I tell W to take the other two home (it's getting late) and I'll handle this. She goes and gets me and S6 some dinner, which I was somewhat surprised when she got my chicken sandwich prepared the way I prefer. Small things, right? S6 was fine - didn't even need a staple or stich. Hard headed, like his dad.

* A few weeks later, on Valentines Day, I went to pick up D8 and S6 from school. It was a day off for them, but D8 called me earlier in the day to say mommy was taking them to the school for me to pick them up at 3:00. I told D8 to make sure mommy didn't leave right away because I had a V-day goodie bag for Ss10 (who I hadn't spent any time with in about two months). I walked up to where the kids were, and saw W's car pulling away. So, she couldn't wait and now Ss10 misses out. A few seconds later, to my complete and utter surprise, Ss10 jumps out of the bushes and says he's going to be with all of us this afternoon (D8 and S6 are spending the night) and that I can drop him off at home at 7:30 or so. WOW!!!! Ss10 then tells me that mommy wants him to tell me something, but he said it must be sad because she started crying when she said it. Huh??? Quote from Ss10 "she said she's really tired and wants to turn over the papers". I asked him if that was all, he said yes, and didn't understand what he was saying. The ONLY thing I could take from it was that she's sick of the effects of the restraining orders and wants to "over turn" them. Who knows........

* Took the kids to dinner, we had a lot of fun, and now all three want to watch a movie at my house. It won't get over until around 9:00, so Ss10 calls mommy to see if he can stay later, she says yes, and the other two get on the phone to say good night to her. OKAY - GET THIS: As I'm walking out of the room, Ss10 tries to hand me the phone and says "mommy wants to talk to you". I tell him no and keep walking - he follows me out of the room with a desparate look on his face, and says, "she really needs to talk to you"......continued