Do You Attend Court Hearings?

I cut short my vacation to attend my fs permanency hearing. It was pretty clear cut that tpr was going to be the outcome, but nevertheless I knew that the judge in this case was very pro reunification (initially wanted a more intense search for relatives even as it was apparent that mom had clearly abandoned him) and I also knew that he was Irish, and I didn't think it would hurt that I was Irish also ;) On both these counts it was a good thing as the GAL pointed out that I thought my attendance there was important enough to sacrifice my vacation, and the judge did crack a joke about our mutual ethnicity! As I said, most likely TPR would have been the decision anyway, but putting a real face to the case can only be helpful, and it shows the level of commitment by the foster family. As it turns out an aunt did come forward after TPR but was ruled out because of insufficient space. DYFS told me that they were advocating for placement with me, but had I not been interested in adopting they would have worked with the aunt to secure the resources she needed to raise fs. Mary