The near disaster today in court was averted by an embarassing show of emotion on my part and a very sympathetic and understanding judge. Because the Ex never completed the state required parenting class we almost had to delay the divorce another month to give him time to do so. Only, when the judge saw how defeated I was at hearing that she asked a few questions of me then talked a bit more to him before deciding that she didn't want to punish me simply because he didn't get his act together on time. As it stands now, the divorce went through and is final but he has until the middle of October to complete the class or he has to go back into court and find out what the judge has to say to him. She informed him that she could decide to revoke his visitation or even go so far as to give him some jail time if he didn't get it done.
Anyway, once all was said and done today in court both he and I got what we wanted. I got the divorce finalized and he got the protection order dropped. I am officially no longer legally tied to my abuser except for the fact that I happen to share my children with him 3-4 days per week. Its a huge weight lifted off my shoulders knowing this, yet at the same time I still feel like not much has changed. And probably not much will change until L's arrival in December unless he does something incredibly stupid like not completing the parenting class. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
On a little side note, today I am also finally making this blog public. I didn't want to have it public before simply so that he couldn't use anything I said or thought against me in court if he so chose. Now that he can't use it against me I'm putting this out there for the world. Or at least hopefully somebody in a situation similar to mine who is hoping to find out that they aren't the only person going through the ordeal of dealing with spousal sexual assault.
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