Funny, as I read through this again, I find myself chuckling. You all see CPS as a powerful force to be reckoned with, overreaching and ruthless. After what I observed yesterday, CPS was a bumbling fool of a lawyer representing an incompetent flower child who didn't want to say anything bad about the mother (who while under the influence of pot, meth, coke, benzodiazapine, and bath salts, tried to cut the bugs out of her children's arms). Can't go into more detail, but the lawyer barely proved the woman even had children, much less the rest. And the social worker really was obviously trying to avoid hurting the woman's feelings.