something had to give

So I'm not on the jury anymore.

As the 4th week of the trial ended and I headed into an awesome weekend visiting family, I was still totally committed to being on the jury and following the trial through to its conclusion (however many more weeks that would entail).

Sunday night, as we drove home from a busy weekend and I dosed up my sick 4-year-old with ibuprofen, I started to get this anxious knot in my stomach.

Tommy had caught a bug from Bill- the bug that had knocked Bill out for over a week. During the month of my jury duty, Bill had missed work both because he was sick and because Henry had been sick also. This commitment I had made was forcing a sacrifice, not only from my workplace, but from my husband's as well.

Last week I had scheduled Henry's IEP meeting for noon on the 14th, and had been fretting ever since about how I would manage to fit the meeting into the court's lunch hour.

I woke up with Tommy several times during the night, and then tossed and turned, worrying about what to do. I got up in the morning and called the jury deputy to explain my predicament. She is a working mother as well, and said "there's nothing else you can do. Your family comes first." She contacted the judge, who excused me from the jury and thanked me for my service.

It was a really hard decision, but the right one. I hated to feel like a "quitter", and go back on an obligation. But, I also feel like I gave it my best shot. I could not have predicted during jury selection that 3 of my family members would come down sick during the course of the trial!

I was home with Tommy for 2 days and when he returned to his sitter's house today she informed me that she needs to take March 20 off- one more reason I'm glad to not be on the jury anymore.

I read that on Monday the prosecution rested its case. I will keep in touch with the jury deputy to get an idea of how long the defense's case will last, and I plan to return to the courtroom for closing arguments, if possible, and for the verdict.