Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

Re: custody of my children back.

It is not unusual for a judge to take a matter "under advisement" and issue a ruling later. Sometimes it is far longer than until the next day. Lawyers hate that.

As to what you can do, it is too late to appeal the case so your only remedy would be to file a Motion to Modify the order. It is usually much harder to obtain a modification than to get the original custody decision. Modifications are rarely successful unless there is some major change in the parents' or the children's circumstances. If you can establish a good relationship with the father, you might be able to get many of the benefits of custody, such as having a greater say in the children's life and a better visitation schedule. And to do that you would not even have to go back to court. The norm is (or should be) that both parents are raising the childen regardless of legal custody issues. Frequently an informal arrangement works far better than each parent trying to enforce the rather inflexible rules laid out in most court orders.

If you cannot work anything out with the father, then you need to be prepared for a hard and expensive battle to obtain custody.

By the way, just because you lost that court battle, does not necessarily mean that you are a bad mother. In the vast majority of divorces, both parents are fairly equally good. When that is the case, the children usually are the winners, regardless of the judge's decision. The test of a good parent frequently comes down to who is more likely to let the other parent have as much contact as possible with the children. That will be the one that the judge usually wants to award custody.