Anyhow, a few days before this hearing, I had received a copy of genetic testing results, (FINALLY after two years of waiting for Evelio's dead beat sperm donor to do his part of the damned test) and of course, probability of paternity is 99.99%. Also, a reminder for the child support hearing was enclosed.
We, Evelio and I, got to the office at exactly 8:50 a.m. The hearing was scheduled for 9:00 a.m., but they tell everyone that. When you arrive you have to sign in and wait for ages to have your name called. Evelio's father, Juan, was already there waiting. There were so many people there already that there were only 2 vacant seats. As soon as we walked through the door, Evelio started screaming and stomping his feet. There were WAY too many people in that small space for him to handle. I dragged him to the receptionist desk and signed in. Juan didn't say anything to us. We sat down and I tried to distract Evelio from his surroundings with my iPhone. Normally, it really soothes him. He played a few games for maybe 2 minutes and then started screaming and pinching me. I noticed that Juan was staring at me as if to ask "WTF is his deal?" Everyone else kept sighing so I decided to try what I had done previously, which was to take him outside. Naturally, he was still distraught outside, not wanting to sit down or stop screaming. I kept him outside for about half an hour, but it was way too cold to keep him out. I took him back inside where the screaming grew louder and he started to hit me in the face, scratch himself, and bang his head into my chest. Juan got up and told me to sit in his chair because there were no other free places. He moved quite a ways away from us. I was thinking that he was probably embarrassed at the way Evelio was behaving. Then, to my relief, a lady opened the door to call someone back and called for me to come to her. I thought it was finally our turn. It wasn't.
"You're going to have to take him out of this office. We are about to hold a hearing, and the judge is going to be mad if he can hear a kid screaming in the lobby. I'm sorry but you're going to have to wait outside and we'll come get you whenever we're ready."
I was so furious that I couldn't say anything right away. Then I said, "Look, he has Autism, I can't help the fact that he's screaming. There's too many people in here and it's driving him crazy." She just shook her head and said, "I'm sorry you're going to have to wait with him outside." I turned away with my eyes full of tears. I was humiliated for one. More so than that however, I couldn't believe that she really asked me to wait outside in the cold because the judge couldn't deal with background noises. Juan noticed me walking towards the door and asked me what happened. Without looking at him I said, "They're making me take Evelio out of here because he's disturbing them, so I have to make him wait in the cold."
Juan followed me outside and told me that I could sit Evelio in his car so that he wouldn't be freezing. I was grateful that he allowed that. Evelio was still upset, but the longer we were outside, the more calm he became. Juan and I talked about Evelio's behavior and I tried my best to explain everything to him.
We were called back into the office to attend our hearing. The minute we got inside the little office to do the decision-making Evelio completely lost control. I just kept apologizing to the lady that was going to be overseeing our discussion. She was much more understanding than the other woman. I picked Evelio up and a few minutes later he was asleep in my arms. We went through the proceedings without argument and ended up not even having to see the judge.
I just can't believe they actually had me removed from the waiting area because my son was having a meltdown. I was completely embarrassed, not at Evelio's behavior, but at having been treated like a child being sent to the Principal's office for rough-housing. I don't know if I could ever bite my tongue again like I did in there. . .
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