Barlow said he wants his children to be returned to their mother, but offered to take them himself as a "plan B." CPS workers conceded that Esther Barlow was on the "fast track" for reunification. She had already completed a psychological evaluation and had signed a lease on a three-bedroom home.

Arthur Barlow was not the only father who is here to offer support for reunification. Frank Johnson traveled from his home in Utah to offer support. He said that he left the FLDS faith.

"Texas is mixed up," he said of the custody situation.

Texas child welfare authorities maintain that children on the ranch were abused or at risk of abuse. During one hearing for a 1-year-old boy, it was revealed that the child's mother is 17, and theoretically, it makes her 15 when her son was conceived.

The child's father did not show up in court. The hearing was continued because the mother is eight months pregnant now.

"We've always known that there are one or two or three examples of that out there," Parker told the Deseret News. "What I've always been denying is there are 26 or 31 examples, which is what CPS has claimed."

The hearings in the largest custody case in U.S. history are the first step for FLDS parents to be reunited with their children seized in the raid on the YFZ Ranch — or see their parental rights taken away.

---

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com