Try to follow this!

Tomorrow the hearing regarding custody of my niece gets started. Just got a call from Mrs. Dave saying the key witness on our side of things is in the hospital and won't be available tomorrow. Blech. So, there probably won't be anything decided tomorrow, they'll just get things started.

So anyway, I was trying to explain this situation to a coworker the other day and it gets complicated. So, without getting into anything too fancy I tried to solve the problem with this graphic. I'm not sure if I nailed it, but it will at least give you an idea of what's going on. I'm sure that simply reading about it can get confusing. I know there's a lot of letters down there, but once you get started, it should make sense.



House - This is where my niece(N), her father(NF), his girlfriend and her son lived. To keep the structure parallel, Boy is B and his mother is BM. There are many other reasons to refer to her as a BM, but that's another post. So, just for clarity, NF and BM are a couple that live together, but are not married. This is where a majority of the abuse of both kids took place.

Red - Any relatives of my niece. Blue - any relatives of the boy.

Gray Circle - My niece's mother, now deceased.

US - Literally us, Mrs. Dave and me. We are the Niece's Maternal Aunt and Uncle (NMAU)

GP - A set of Grandparents, on the boy's side there is a GM and GF because they are no longer together.

Orange Ring - This is the person that B told about the abuse that was going on. BPGF reported it to Chils's services.

Green Ring - This is where the children were initially placed after they were removed from the house.

Purple Rings - Where N and B are now (with their particular sides of the family)

L - This is a person or couple that has a lawyer involved in the hearing tomorrow.


It's dizzying even when you're in the middle of it!

Dave