And the Ruling Is . . .

Dear Friends,
After 12 LONG YEARS of worry, hope, prayer, anguish, anger, fear, more prayer, and many, many sleepless nights, we finally have a ruling from Judge Hartert. Beth and Keith now have full time custody of Steven for the very first time.The ruling came in last Thursday. I do not have the details as of yet, but will surely post them on my CRUSH website as they come in. I'm only aware of a couple of statements in the ruling. Judge Hartert said that "When Steven is with Dad--he wants to stay with Dad. When Steven is with Mom--he wants to stay with Mom. When he's with Mom, he cries, he whines, he cannot (or will not)talk. When he's with Dad he's articulate, speaks up freely, and appears well." He also said, "Mother's dialogue is indicative of the problem." Whenever she speaks of Steven's "illnesses", she speaks in the plural (a.k.a. "We" had this illness, "We" had this treatment, "We felt . . ."). He believes that Steven's "illnesses" are truly those of the mother.

HOW AWESOME IS THAT??? We've been trying to get someone to listen to that line of thought for at least 6 years, and they finally heard us! The most interesting part of this whole ruling was Steven's reaction.

Keith came home and talked with him about things in general. He then said that the judge had made his ruling. Steven started to cry (normal for Steven). But this time he was nearly hysterical. Keith asked him why he was so upset. "Because I'm afraid I'm going to have to go live with my mom . . . And, they're going to make her go to jail." (We can only hope.) The minute Keith told him that he was staying in Utah and would be living with them, Steven stopped crying, started smiling--was downright "giddy"! And he's been happy ever since. He has not been the same boy for several months now and we all assumed it was because he truly wanted to be home with his mother. We felt he was just "marking time" until the day he could live with his mom again. Not so. In reality he's been living under the dread of having to return to Florida. Now that he knows he's staying in Utah, he a different kid. Amazing! (FYI: Steven is doing extremely well in school. His report cards are mostly A's & B's--and that is on grade level. He's also only been sick once since Keith got him. He had a light case of the flu for two days.)

Are we happy? You know it! We know that there will most likely be an appeal--Patty may not truly want Steven, but she wants to WIN! So for now, we're going to enjoy the terrific victory and keep moving forward with this young man.

I want so much to thank all of you for your interest, your prayers, and your kind words since I published the book. I've heard from people all over the world. Some are adults who have "lived" Steven's childhood. They've encouraged us to keep fighting and often expressed they wished that someone had fought for them when they were victim to their own Munchausen mother. Those words give us strength to keep going and help us to know that fighting for Steven is the right thing to do. Thank you all so very much!

Most Happily!
C.B.

P.S. Just a small footnote: Patty's attorney is out of the office until April 5th. Just think--she's can't even yell at her attorney for another week. Sometimes God does have a sense of humor! Love it!