I haven't won yet...

Today was my hearing for the appeal I had filed in response to a ruling in juvenile court. Even though I presented what I felt was a strong argument, the judge ruled in my daughters' father's favor and my daughters are to be issued passports and to leave for India on October 28th... The judge did state that he felt there was a slight risk of abduction, however, it was not significant enough to deny the trip or to even post a bond. Of course I object to this ruling and efforts will begin in do time to make arrangements to ensure my daughters safe return. In the meanwhile... I am going to take some much deserved downtime these next few days... recollect my thoughts, come to terms with today's events, and then get back to work. Also, I would like to kick my efforts to gain support for HR 3240 into high gear. I did receive a phone call from the office of congressman Forbe's in Virginia, and they would like to arrange a meeting so that we could discuss HR 3240 and international parental child abduction in general.

Happy Birthday Jazzy!

August 7th was my oldest daughter, Jasmine's, birthday... Since summer is her father's visitation time, I only got to spend 3 hours with her. But it was better than last year as I did not get to see them for their birthdays. My celebration began with a bouquet of balloons, a giant unicorn balloon with gold, pink, and purple balloons. After that I took her out to eat where the staff sang happy birthday to her and she got eat a special sundae. Lastly I took her on a little boat ride down our historic canal. Even though it wasn't much because of time reasons, she had a great time and I got to spend time with them.

This week I plan to take both of them to a baseball game to see fireworks and then Lily's birthday is the 13th where I plan to take her to get a pedi and manicure. Goodness I love my babies!