Some of you may have been wondering how it is that Chris and I could get married, yet no legal update had been posted.
It's quite simple; only half of our legal issues (or really, 1/4) are resolved at this moment. The judge decided something very odd, and so we've been grappling with what to do ever since.
We expected the judge to rule on jurisdiction in one of two ways, either by ruling that AZ had jurisdiction, or ruling that BC had jurisdiction.
He did neither. He ruled that although he could take jurisdiction over the divorce (which he did, yay!) he did not think AZ could have jurisdiction over the children. He did not decline jurisdiction, nor hand it to BC, he just essentially said, "I don't think AZ can take jurisdiction."
We essentially ended up with a non-ruling ruling. Since then, after recovering from the "huh?" reaction Chris, my lawyer, and I had, we've been pursuing legal avenues to get the case looked at again. We've filed a Motion for New Trial and Additional Findings of Fact which, when translated to plain English means, "hey judge, we think you overlooked something and if you didn't, we'd like to know what you're referring to in your ruling."
My lawyer filed the final paperwork on Tuesday, and now it goes before the judge. Within the next 60 days we'll have one of three things; an "oops, I was wrong and here's the new ruling," a new trial, or an actual basis for an appeal.
Obviously life for us continues to be expensive while we wait for the judge. No matter what, our legal expenses keep coming. We have a plan for catching up (other than me finding a job that doesn't require the additional cost of day care) that will be revealed shortly. And no, this will not be another appeal for help, we've come up with an actual way to raise money that we think will be well received.
Unfortunately this means we will not be doing the big wedding in May. Legal costs are still in the "oh my god" range and we can't afford to do the wedding at this point in time. We've decided to wait the 2 1/2 years until my Catholic annulment comes through and have the big wedding when we have our religious wedding. However we will still be at the 2nd Amendment Blog Bash, since there's nothing like attending a nation-wide blogger meetup 20 minutes from your own house.
Despite the wedding plans falling through, we hope to see you all at the annual meeting in May.
Mel
