i am stunned right now at how well the final hearing went this morning in family court. BD actually signed the papers out in the hallway with a witness, so we never even had to set foot in the courtroom! we spoke for a little while and he explained to me that when he recently took the substance abuse class after his dui, the court recommended another 4-6 months of weekly counseling (either that or one month in a residential treatment facility; pretty hardcore). he claims the whole ordeal has made him realize that he wants to do whatever it takes to be a healthy, stable, safe daddy to monkeygirl. so he signed all my demands, which are that his visits with her be supervised in his parents' home while they are present (this has been working well for a year now) until he a)finishes all court-ordered alcohol abuse programs and b)completes a court recommended anger management class. once he completes those things, we can begin to talk about the possibility of him spending *some* time alone with her, and if that goes well for a while maybe eventually she can spend a night with him sometimes. it's so weird to be on the road toward an end to all this, especially after 16 months of bitter, relentless fighting. i'm really shocked that he has agreed that he needs help, and i almost want to question it, like (suspiciously) "why is he doing this??" i don't want to let myself believe yet that the war is completely over (i'm not THAT naive), but i'm more hopeful now than ever before that someday he and i can be cooperative co-parents. i just hope that this latest stint in family court is the last one for a looooong freaking time! thankyou everyone for your advice & happy thoughts since i've been sharing info about this ordeal; knowing that i had a bunch of people rooting for me, even people i've never met, was like having the sun shining on me!