Four days before Christmas, a Redmond couple received their miracle.

Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler's 10-month-old son Hunter will spend his first Christmas at home after a judge found the couple's limited cognitive abilities did not make them unfit to parent.

They brought Hunter home on Friday, a day after Circuit Judge Bethany Flint ruled the state had not proven he should remain under the care of the Oregon Department of Human Services. Hunter had been in foster care since he was born.

"I feel the threat articulated to Hunter is fairly amorphous," Flint said. "I searched and searched for some sort of language that was provided to articulate what the current threat of harm is to Hunter right now. ... There is no allegation that they're not able to meet his basic needs."

The couple will return to court in January to fight the termination of their parental rights over their older son, 4-year-old Christopher.

Christopher has diagnosed developmental hurdles that Flint was not convinced the parents fully understand. The defense will present its side when the trial continues Jan. 9.

"(Christopher) is not a regular child ... that is going to just do great with a lot of love and support," Flint said. "While these parents have learned a lot and are asking a lot of questions, appropriate questions, ... Christopher is different than Hunter right now."

Three attorneys for the state had called some 40 witnesses over 11 days of trial testimony to argue the couple's limited cognitive abilities make them unable to safely parent. Fabbrini's IQ has tested at 72, Ziegler's at 66. The average IQ falls between 90 and 110.

"Limited cognitive abilities or lower IQ numbers do have an impact on people," deputy district attorney Jason Kropf said. "It impacts judgment ability, it impacts insight, it impacts problem identification, it impacts planning and how to solve those problems and also impacts the notion of whether somebody knows whether a problem is fixed or not."

In addition to the testimony of psychologists who stated IQ is relatively static and will not change over time, the state provided numerous instances of the parents' alleged deficiencies. They didn't read to the children. They had to be told to put sunscreen on the baby's arms. Their home smelled of dog. Their choice of snacks was criticized.

"We are looking at a totality," said Karen Stanley, attorney for the Department of Human Services.

At one point Stanley argued the couple's housing permanency – they live in a house with the mortgage paid by Ziegler's parents – was a sign of deficiency.

"Going through the rental and purchasing processes show a level of functioning and a level of ability that would be important to look at," she said.

But Flint was not entirely persuaded.

"I will affectionately remember this case as the 'chicken nugget case,'" Flint said. "I found it difficult to read that these parents tried this thing and tried that thing and then they are advised that instead of chicken nuggets they should have boiled chicken breast, that giving fried foods is a parenting deficiency. That was hard to read."

At times, the state argued that Fabbrini and Ziegler asked too many questions, suggesting they didn't know how to parent. At other times, the state implied they didn't ask enough questions, trying to show they didn't understand their cognitive limitations.

"They can't win for losing," Flint said. "I think there's a lot of evidence in the record that whenever they do say things they are attacked for them, which could create a culture of silence around the parents as well."

Leaving the courtroom Thursday evening, Fabbrini began to cry. So too did one of the boys' Court Appointed Special Advocates. Both children's advocates stated they believed keeping the boys with their foster family was in their best interests. Christopher, who has also been in foster care since days after his birth, has developed a strong attachment to his foster parents.

It's possible the state could appeal the decision on Hunter, but none of the state's attorneys would comment on the possibility after the ruling.

"This is a negative-sum game," acknowledged Fabbrini's attorney, Jaime Gerlitz, in her motion to dismiss. "No one wins no matter what and I would ask the court to stop the hemorrhaging sooner rather than later and dismiss DHS's termination case so that we can begin the healing process for Christopher, because no matter what happens he's the one that loses the most."

Four years of foster care and five attorneys later, how did we get here?

No doubt, these parents will need outside help to face the challenges ahead. How much heartache could have been avoided if the state had opted to, say, provide a parenting aide to coach them rather than a case worker to criticize them? The cost to the state, the cost to these children and the pain for both the biological and foster families might have been mitigated.

-- Samantha Swindler is a columnist for The Oregonian

@editorswindler / 503-294-4031

sswindler@oregonian.com