Before the hearing Stewart and I met with Bruce and Gilda. Stewart told Gilda that if it was possible, he’d like for her to recommend to the judge that he get solo custody. He explained that he thought he had done a good job of taking care of her during the past 4 days at my house. Gilda was honest and straightforward with him. She said that the only reason she recommended joint custody with me was so that he wouldn’t have hard feelings against me. She also said that if she were forced to choose, she would choose to recommend that I get custody. Stewart became quite angry.

The hearing didn't go as well as we had hoped. In addition to denying that she was a danger to the baby, Carrie's mom repeatedly insisted that Stewart had physically abused her the weekend of April 8-10. She even took her to the emergency room to document bruises. I can only imagine where the bruises came from, and it breaks my heart. As a result, the judge ordered that Carrie be placed in custody of the children's services board pending investigation. He also ordered psychological evaluations of both parents. The good news is that Carrie is still NOT with her mom. The other good news is that the judge acknowledged the disorder that dare not speak its name: Munchausen by Proxy. He set a pre-trial hearing for July 5.

Bruce and Gilda both said that they didn’t see it coming. They were in denial for a few minutes. What’s next? They both said that we would immediately start asking for an interstate home study in order to get Carrie placed with me. The judge had mentioned in the courtroom that these kinds of trials can take years to sort out. I can’t imagine dealing with this for years. Bruce said that Stewart should apply for a court appointed attorney. At first, I thought he was going to resign from the case. Then he said that if Stewart is approved, he would volunteer to stay on the case. Stewart applied and was approved in minutes.

Immediately after the hearing Bruce, Stewart and I went to the childrens services board office to give them a copy of the order and arrange to turn Carrie over. While we were waiting, Dr. Moore passed through the waiting room. Bruce spoke to him about scheduling Stewart’s psychological evaluation. Bruce was able to get the eval scheduled for May 17^th at 11AM.

While we waited for someone to come talk to us, I asked Bruce several questions about what would happen next? Bruce said again that we have to ask for a home study so Carrie can be placed with me. He said I should sign a release for a background check. He also said I should ask about having the supervised visits at my home.

We spoke with a couple different people. The only one I can remember is Kenyetta (sp?). She said that we had to have Carrie back at the facility by 9:30PM. We also found out that they don’t have release forms to do a background check for people living in KY. I would have to get my own background check and submit it.

On the way home we called mom and told her to meet at my house. I called Kent to tell him what was going on. We all met at my house and spent our last couple hours with Carrie. I found out that the Lexington PD doesn’t do background checks anymore. They referred me to Frankfort. So, on the way back to Hamilton, I went to Frankfort. Stewart and I both got reports.

We arrived in Hamilton around 9:15. We rang the bell. Kenyetta came to the door and led us back to the parking lot. Caitlin Basano was the on-call worker who took Carrie to her foster home. We got a card with Kendall R’s name on it. He is the intake worker who is processing the case.