My son and his wife were divorced before their second child was born. My son had regular non-custodial visitation privileges. The mother had returned to working in a bar and my son had the children a lot of nights because of her work schedule.
My daughter and I helped with them. We started noticing men with her in the mornings when we’d take the children home and the oldest started crying and clinging to us, begging us not to leave him when we would get to his mom’s house.
I started keeping a record of the men, the child’s reaction, and the number of days she would go without even seeing the children. Her brother also said she was back into drugs and her boyfriend had just gotten out of prison for trafficking drugs. This prompted my son to take my records and get a lawyer to file for full custody. The day of the hearing, he called me and said they were at lunch and it didn’t look like they would even get to have their case heard because of so many ahead of them. He was practically in tears. I left my office and drove around too worried and upset to even pray. All I could do was just say over and over Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
About 4:00 that afternoon I got a call from my son. His lawyer had asked the judge to drug test the mother. The judge said they would drug test both parents. The bailiff suggested that her boyfriend be tested too since he was the one who had been in prison for trafficking. The boyfriend took off and wouldn’t stay for the test. The children’s mother tested positive for cocaine and marijuana. The judge made a from-the-bench decision that the boyfriend was not to be anywhere near the children and he’d make his final decision in a few days. My son got full custody with her only having supervised visits. The mother straightened out and had a decent relationship with the children who are 22 and 24 now. God hears our prayers even when we can’t pray.
“Bend Your ear to me and listen to my words, O Eternal One; hear the deep cry of my heart.
Listen to my call for help, my King, my True God; to You alone, I pray.” Psalm 5:1-2
Barbara Rogers
Collinsville, Alabama
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