Our lawyer is a very experienced family law guy. Almost grizzled. He beat the snot out of one of my girlfriends a few years ago, in fact. So I've been surprised at how gingerly he's treated our case up to this point.

As a reminder, BM filed to limit DH's parenting time to EOWE in January because she had alienated SS6 so badly that he refused visitation with DH for 6 months. And DH, trying to be a good guy, didn't physically move the kid, who would literally hide at pickup times. Also, she knew that she would be deploying in July, and she wanted her husband to have custody of the kids (including SD11 who has never refused a visit) in her absence, and she thought that would be the way to accomplish that. And when that didn't work, she had her husband petition for custody of the kids.

The court date was at the end of June. There was a courthouse agreement on the substantial points (DH agreed to let BM's husband have the kids for school purposes and to clarify a lot of the finer points of the HC CO), but since that time, it's been a back and forth with BM's lawyer about small, ridiculous details. The lawyer has done everything within her power to slow the process down, and most recently, has taken to making ridiculous allegations that DH is reneging on agreements, when in reality, it's BM that has been a problem. For example, BM agreed to do 1/2 of transportation, for example, but then said she wouldn't do any. Then she agreed to do it, but didn't want a fixed time (she is being required to drop off to a) show support for DH's parenting time, and b) if SS starts to refuse a visit, she will have to deal with it.)

Now, after 2 months and 11 drafts of this agreement (I think), our lawyer finally told her lawyer that we were done negotiating. If they can't agree to what's written, we'll go to court, and frankly, BM will be completely screwed. No hearing can be held until BM returns from deployment sometime early next year. DH has a ROFR clause, so unless he is ordered or agrees otherwise, the skids are in his custody until she returns. You'd think they would realize that and act accordingly, but they won't.

At least our Lawyer is done with the BS. He finally understands how bad it is, which means he will be able to help more in the future, I think.