Never have I prayed so hard for anything to go my way... I knew that the law was on my side but they had the option of making me jump through more hoops if they wanted me to before appointing me the administrator for his estate... they could have made me post a bond, wait another 48 hours, then pay for the copies of the letters of administration but the judge didn't make me do any of that... he told us to refile our petition so I wouldn't have to be court-supervised and didn't request that I post a bond... he didn't make me wait and had his clerk print up the new petition for us and all I had to do was sign... so now I have legal power over all of his estate and I can recover everything... I have the right to go over there and get it all and there's nothing she can do about it... she has made us wait for so long and now she's going to get what's coming to her... there will be no mercy... this is the best Christmas gift so far... my favorite attorney did tell me this is what would happen, but the attorney representing me in this matter told me there were other possibilities that could drag it out and make it more costly... this judge was so sweet I could have kissed him... I had to settle for a handshake and an appointment to see him again in April when all of this is completely resolved... if it turns out that his estate doesn't exceed a certain amount then everything will go to the kids and they will get more than we had originally hoped... this will mean that college is taken care of and I can relax a little bit more... hard to believe I have been nauseous about this for the last couple of days... I always worry more than I should but there are so many variables that you can never be certain of... the judge asked why we were filing the way that we had and it's because the Dallas county judges are harsher critics and want to protect the rights of the creditors, not the kids... this judge was a peach and I am happy... I am more happy than I've been in a while and there aren't too many more things that I could ask for... after this whole thing settles down you will be seeing me getting the house back into shape and doing all of those extravagant things I have been dreaming of... windows and doors! Yeah! I'll be at Home Depot drooling over my options and will be happy to get them in as soon as I wrap this whole affair up... then maybe I can get myself back into the real world =)