Many of you may not be aware, but way back in the late 90's, my older brother appeared on the Maury Povich show, one of the early paternity test episodes. This was before Maury perfected the signature, "You are NOT the father!"
My brother at that point had been dad since day one to my niece and all the show did was confirm what we all saw when she was born: she was clearly my brother's kid. He came home from the trip with new-found legal rights. Before this, her mom (his girlfriend at the time), had used her as a pawn. Now, more than 14 years after the episode aired, my niece primarily lives with my brother.
Today, I feel like I am reminded of that Maury Povich saga. BIL, the brother-in-law not living here, was served with paperwork for a hearing for child support for a child born to his wife in December 2006. Based on the timing, it should not be BIL's. He moved in with us in the summer of 2005 (actually, his wife kicked him out on the anniversary of his mom's death, so we even know the date). He says he has not seen her since then and based on the pit of despair he was in while he lived with us, and the police reports we filed when his wife's boyfriend threatened to hurt BIL, I actually believe him.
The hearing was today. Husband bought his brother clothes for the hearing as a Christmas present. The hearing was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Husband planned to pick BIL up at 7 a.m. When he got there, BIL was still asleep. Husband woke him up. Then BIL'S current girlfriend wanted to go with them and played her usual manipulative games to try and make him late. But she underestimated the powers of my Husband. They arrived 7 minutes early.
The wife never showed. BIL gave his story and they proceeded to swab him for DNA. Now, we wait while they contact the wife to get a swab from the kid to determine the validity of the claim.
The best part is that if BIL hadn't shown - a big possibility if Husband hadn't been involved - they would have automatically awarded a judgment against him, his wages would have been garnished, and he would have suffered a long, uphill battle to fight the child support award.
Welcome to my soap opera life. Oh, and we have added BIL back to our family cell phone plan since his girlfriend's grandma had theirs shut off.
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