The interim report we got back in October was really disappointing. Even though there were all these flags all over the place of how nuts BM is, GAL did not recommend any changes. Going into the final report, the GAL was not very responsive or communicative to BF. She even said she didn't need a followup interview with either of them.

She did contact both lawyers and said she wanted to discuss what she was planning to recommend with both of them to see if they could come to some sort of agreement, to see if it would even be necessary for her to finish the report.

We got discovery questions back from BM explicitly asking about her long term plans for SD where she clearly stated she intends to relocate to live with her parents on the east coast. She still claims BF "abused" her and that SD doesn't like coming to "daddy's" house so she should have less time with us. The idiot BM basically outlined her whole statement for us, so we knew exactly what she was going to tell the GAL and if this goes to trial, what her statement will be.

BF sent a very emotional email to the GAL saying that SD is the most important thing in his life and to please take this evaluation seriously and to pay attention to what is really happening.

He was contacted by the GAL and told that she'd decided that a followup conversation would be necessary after all. Her tone suddenly has changed from a severely cold neutral one to very warm and friendly. He was supposed to see her Friday but she had a medical emergency and had to postpone until Monday. She made a point to tell him that she had cleared her calendar so Monday was totally open for him.

This is the nicest she has ever been to us.

We believe in addition to his email, she has gotten some good information from some of our witnesses in the evaluation. Back when they first split, BM put SD in "child therapy". She's 3, so it was more of a "play therapy" thing. In the interim report, the GAL recommended BF get involved. Well he set up alternating taking her, so for his weekends with SD they do the exchanges at the therapist's office and he does the session with her. This is also good because the therapist can see how SD reacts during the exchanges and how she responds emotionally to her father after being with BM all day.

Immediately the therapist commented on how calm, focused, and in control of herself SD is when she is with him. Apparently with "mommy" SD throws tantrums and exhibits a lot of emotional distress. The therapist always asks SD if she wants daddy in the room with her or for him to wait outside. She always says she wants him in the room with her.

The therapist has also been asking SD and BF questions that make it clear she is following up on things BM is claiming. Like, she'll ask SD, do you want to go to daddy's house? do you want daddy to come to your soccer class? She always gives an enthusiastic YES. She's also asked BF about things we know are clearly claims BM is making and BF always gives a calm, rational, and reasonable answer.

We've also been spending time with a coworker's family. His wife is a stay at home mother of 3 and homeschools her kids fulltime. One has some medical issues that make attending public school difficult. She treats being a stay at home mom as her full-time job, not as an excuse to avoid work or responsibility (like BM). They've known BF and BM for over 10 years and at one point they decided they did not want BM in their home around their kids. They always liked BF but felt BM was rude to their kids and a bad influence.

The GAL spoke with both the therapist and our friend this week. So I don't believe it's just BF's email that's turned her attitude around but also the statements about BM. I would suspect that she's also had some sort of conversation with BM where BM has made the same claims she made in her discovery responses that clearly indicate an intention to alienate the child from her father and a failure to take care of herself and be an adult.

The GAL was supposed to have a mediation discussion with the lawyers on Friday. The last we heard, she has a phone meeting with BF's lawyer Weds, but there was no indication if BM's lawyer would be involved in the conversation.

We are trying our best to not get our hopes up, but we are at least happy that it seems like the GAL is at least giving BF a chance and actually taking the investigation seriously.