Finally a victory for the good guys!!!

My cousin's daughter, who is also my cousin of course, and her DH were introduced to her DH's daughter less than a year before they married.  The little girl was at their wedding. She was ~2yo at the time.  She is a beauty. 

They have a 2yo daughter of their own.

The backstory is that he had a short relationship with the BM and did not know about the daughter until the BM went on welfare in CA.  She did not know who the father was and my cousin's DH was about 6th on the list of those tested for paternity.  He won that prize. They have been paying CS to the BM for 4+ years.

Meanwhile ~4 years later and back at the ranch they get a call from the BM's great grandmother that the little girl is being neglected, sexually abused, and that the BM is homeless and a crackhead prostitute.  The cousin and her DH take out a loan for a lawyer in CA, bum a bunch of money from family and friends and fly to CA to initiate an emergency custody hearing.  BM's mother had been the primary care giver and apparently went ballistic in court to the point that the Judge nearly threw her in jail.  Losing the CS apparently cut into the family's crack habit and they were pissed about the possibility of losing that money.  My cousin's DH was awarded temporary custody and they were immediately able to take the little girl back to their home in the SE.

The little girl had extremely bad dental problems ~$10K, that my Aunt (mom's sister) and Uncle payed to fix.   She couldn't see so my cousin and her DH got her glasses, and integrated her into their home and family.  The little girl is thriving.

So, last week they had a telephone hearing with the CA Judge and were awarded full physical and legal custody of the little girl.  BM was denied any visitation.   The BM nor her attorney showed up.

Though my cousin's DH is an idiot (booted out of the military for a hot drug test) and pretty much destined for a lifetime of mediocrity he is orders of magnitude better than the BM.  My cousin is actually pretty sharp, works her butt off, and is in college.  Her tragic flaw is that she was raised in a very skitchy community and is hell bent on defending how great  the community and her scary assed druggy borderline friends are and won't GTF out of that shithole town that hey live in. One of her HS BFFs was convicted of murder and got life without possibility of parole. She visits him regularly.  I don't get it but.. apparently this is what defenders of crappy communities and defenders of crappy people do.

I worry about all  4 of them, but in this case, the good guys won.

Now, if they will only get out of that shithole.