Personally IMO I think Gabriel was just a "gift" for their daughter rather than a real person with rights of his own.
But if you look at the timing of EJ leaving...
The hearing when LM was given joint custody and a specific date when EJ was to bring Gabriel to him was on the 17th. I believe TPS was at that hearing. Wasn't that where TPS said she was supposed to have lunch with LM, his father and EJ and he brushed her off? LM was supposed to get custody Sunday to Wednesday, the first day being on Sunday the 20th. The next day EJ is telling the Smiths that she wants to pick up Gabriel to take him to visit his father? Now you know they were going to question that. He was supposed to go to his father on the 20th and they knew it.
They still had Gabriel after that hearing so they must have believed that EJ would at least give him to them during her custody time until they could come up with a new plan to get LM to agree to the adoption.
They knew that she was in SA because she called them. And she supposedly told them she was getting "underground" help. I don't believe they would have given up that easily. If it was truly a surprise to them that she had taken off and they were no longer in the running to adopt Gabriel, IMO TPS would have gone to SA to try to convince her to come back. JMO.
Yep the gift for H kind of talk they engaged in illustrates their objectification of Gabriel.
Yes they were at least at the courthouse, if not in the hearing room. I'm not sure they were right in the room. Let's say they were, and heard what the judge ordered on Logan's half of the custody and the days it was supposed to be.
I think she told them that she'd agreed that Logan could move his days up because he works during the week. That would make sense to them. Logan moved up the visit to Friday night through Monday morning because that's when he wasn't working.
Eliz was preparing on Dec 15 to run, getting things into place. Dec 17 the hearing didn't go as planned - the judge foiled that plan. Eliz must have been foaming-at-the-mouth mad. But, smart girl that she is, she was prepared just in case, and getting ready to run. She finalized her plans Dec 17/18, and took off that night.
I think TayJay initiated the contact with Eliz once she was gone, and that if they hadn't, Eliz probably wouldn't have contacted them. She was a woman on a mission, and doesn't feel that she needs anyone.
And Tammi did think she was still in the running. Even after Eliz was arrested Tammi thought/hoped she was still in the running. Hence the vicious trashing of Logan. Tammi didn't give up for a while after Eliz was arrested.
I agree Tammi would have gone to SA, but I think the reason she didn't is because Eliz wouldn't tell her where she was. She'd gone rogue, on her own, and I think she likes being a loner. Puts her in control with nobody to tell her what to do, or to tell her that what she's doing is wrong.
But.. even if I'm wrong, and they knew Eliz was taking off to SA, and if that was planned in advance specifically to 'change jurisdictions', it was still Elizabeth's plan to remove Gabriel from Logan. She was in control of that and effecting it. And she'd of done it even if Tammi didn't exist.
:cow:
Thanks for talking about this with me, Kamille.

It's very helpful to me to sort of 'say out loud' what I've been ruminating on. (DH just keeps going "uh huh"... "uh huh"...)