Jury Duty is Over!!

Well, this week was my turn to take off from work to serve our city in jury duty. At first I was really reluctant and not very excited, but after the judge came in on Monday he really convinced me that this is something that I should feel priviledged to do. He helped me realized that if I was in a situation where I needed a jury to convicted someone that may have hurt my family that I would want the jury to want to be there and not thinking about how quickly they could get out there.

I was picked for a jury and had to report to the Juvenile Center yesterday morning. The judge came in and explained a little about what would happen and informed us that the case we would be working with was one of relinquishing parental rights. My heart immediately sunk. I was thinking we would be dealing with kids who had broken the law, not deciding if a mom is worthy to keep her kids or not. I immediately got nervous, but decided that I could make a rational decision based on what was in the best interest for those kids.

After about 3 hours of waiting in a room waiting for them to call us back, the baliff came in and announced that the mom decided to relinquish her rights when she heard there was a jury waiting to hear the case. I guess she knew she was guilty and that she probably would not win. I was kind of relieved, but I would have been really interested in the experience. I pray for those kids and hope that they have a great family waiting for them to take care of them!!

So, when you get your summons to serve on jury duty!! Go in to it with the right attitude and be the person that you would want on the jury if you were needing one!! (Sorry for the soapbox!!)