The first mediation session ended without success because Lola decided that she needed to talk to her drug rehab counselor at the last minute and we could not find him. We were all guardedly optimistic about the second session. We started to worry when Lola arrived.
She looked really bad. I had seen her like this many times before. She told us that she had not talked to the counselor and that we were going to have a trial because she was not going to sign anything. When she came back, she told me that she had lost the pictures we had given her. She elaborated that she did not want to tell me how she lost them, because the lawyers would try to hold it against her.
The mediator separated the parties and would talk to us and then talk to them. We were not getting anywhere. Our group was not even hopeful at this point.
The mediator then changed the rules and made it possible for progress to begin. He put Lola, her attorney, and me in a conference room with just each other. Her lawyer asked me to tell Lola how I felt about the boys and how we would raise them. I assured her that I loved them as my own children and that Nancy and I would provide them with every opportunity to succeed in life. I told her about my adult children, their educations, jobs, spouses, and plans.
Her attorney then consulted with Lola with me sitting there. She said that, as a rule, she did not like foster / adoptive parents, but she liked us. She reminded Lola of how unusual it is for five siblings in the system to be raised together. She told Lola, in front of me, that she would not get custody of Isaiah and that her outside chances were to get a situation where he was placed in permanent custody with us. That would give her occasional visiting rights.
Lola was in tears and near a decision. I gave her assurances once more. I was asking this woman to sign her child over to me. She agreed to do it.
I returned to the room where everyone else was sitting. They had been there several hours. It looked like the waiting room in a maternity ward. Everyone looked at me, they saw my tears, but they also saw that I was dancing. Nancy had stayed home with the other boys, so I found a phone and called her. The attorneys quickly drafted an attachment to the relinquishment agreement, it was signed, and it was done.
I left the building thirty minutes later. I walked past Lola on the street outside. I hugged her as I walked by. I would see her next at a goodbye meeting. There was quite a celebration that night at the Paul residence.
Related Blogs:
The Fight for Isaiah, Round Two
The Fight for Isaiah, Round Three
The Fight for Isaiah, Round Four