Abducted Child-Father needs help with attorney fee

Hey y’all! I just want to start by saying I know this year has been crazy for all for us. I know many of you are hurting and struggling right now. This year has been a crazy ride for all of us. I want you to know I see you and I feel for you. I understand financial help may not be possible for some of you and I just want to say, please don’t over extend yourselves. Sending positive vibes is always appreciated!

I also want to open this up on a positive note. On January 10th, 2020, I married an amazing man who came with pre-made family and I have a step-daughter now. For such a crazy time, it also feels like the prefect time to be taking on some new life challenges and shaking things up for the better! The kiddo has taught me so much in such a short period of time. She’s a great kid but does suffer from some developmental delays. At age 6, I would say she was about 2 years behind her peers in most areas and she did not speak in full sentences at all until age 4-5. She required help with simple tasks like using the restroom and wiping until well into kindergarten. 

Public schooling has done her a tremendous amount of good- when we can keep her in school. The issue we are currently facing is that my husband currently only has custody on the weekends. Because of this he has had to call the school on a weekly basis to make sure she is actually attending school. He paid for a private pre-school, only to find out she had missed more days than she attended. In kindergarten, she missed 32 days in the first half of the year, prompting my husband to begin petitioning the courts for more parenting time during the week. 

It was at this time that her mother made accusations of sexual abuse against my husband. I am disabled and don’t work, nor can I leave my house without my husband. There has literally never been a time he has been alone with that child since I moved in with him in 2017 after my stroke. 

When I moved in I had started giving the kiddo baths and helping her with her hygiene as her mother had made sexual abuse allegations against my husband when the child was 1 and he had initially petitioned the courts for custody. This turned out to be a really good thing too, since when DFS opened an investigation, the first step was to interview the child and since the child’s father hasn’t even been in the room with her while she was changing in years, the interview lasted about 5 mins and no case was opened against him. This has been a traumatic experience for both the kiddo and her father, and unfortunately the mother’s go to move to keep my husband in-line has been to threaten to frame him for sexually abusing his own daughter. She even tried to tell me things to make me think something fishy was going on when she first found out I was living with my husband. My husband and I ended up meeting with the pediatrician and she assured us there were no signs indicating any of those concerns and she had already talked to mom about it so she wasn’t sure why we would continue to have concerns. The mother has even gone as far as submitting a restraining order against my husband on behalf of the child and then using those documents, which weren’t accepted by the courts, to bar him from being able to get information from the pediatrician and school when we’ve been in the middle of collecting evidence for court, making it so that we aren’t able to gather evidence against her before going to court and getting documentation that he does in fact have the right to access the child’s information, which has been a huge time and financial drain. 

When DFS advised the mother the child had made no disclosure of abuse and she must follow the court ordered parenting time, she then took the child to be evaluated for sexual abuse in an ER. This is a clear indication of medical abuse and Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The attending physician in the ER found no signs of sexual trauma but did have significant concerns about her speech and developmental delays. That physician reported the mother on suspicion of neglect. DFS met with the mother on numerous occasions and made a plan to get the child in with a developmental specialist for testing. The case was closed upon scheduling those appointments. At this point, the mother has rescheduled so many times the provider will no longer schedule for her. 

As soon as COVID-19 restrictions were implemented, the mother decided to abscond with the child and now my husband and I haven’t seen the kiddo since March. About a month in, my husband was contacted by the education specialist that works with the kiddo in school, helping get her caught up to her peers. The specialist was asking if he had seen the kiddo because she had not been on any Zoom calls yet. When my husband messages the mother on TalkingParents regarding the child, she responds by threatening to call the cops and tell them he is threatening her and stalking her. 

The police won’t do anything more than advise him to go to the courts. The courts were closed for weeks. My husband has continued to work full time throughout the pandemic. We put both of our stimulus checks towards retaining legal counsel. As soon as the courts allowed us to file, our counsel filed a motion and the courts ordered mediation be scheduled before moving to a hearing. The mother refused to respond by the deadline and the mediator canceled. 

My husband’s counsel then filed an update with the courts and at this point the mother hired her own counsel. This is yet another money sucking detour on a journey of many. We have enough that we know we can pay our counsel through at least one more hearing but we’re barely making ends meet otherwise and don’t really know that we can keep the needed cash flow it takes to work with the courts. This is a child who definitely needs help and needs saving. Please help me help her. 

This kid cries every time she has to leave our house and we really have no idea what type of environment her mother is providing as the kid has told us she will get in trouble for telling us about mom’s house. I have many other concerns surrounding the mother and her boyfriend. One of which being that he told me they had met ten years ago when he was just 16 and she was 25 and that he had dated older women before that but has allegedly been dating her on and off since then. He has also been the mother’s star and only witness, testifying that he has seen the child engage in masturbatory behaviors, something my husband nor I have ever witnessed. 

We are stuck in a horrible situation and don’t have a lot of options left. We have tried DFS, we have tried the police- the courts are the only option at this point, unfortunately even a small filing can be incredibly expensive and the courts are moving even slower than normal due to COVID-19. Our goal is to have enough to pay a retainer at least one more time, if not twice as this could drag out into the holidays. Anything extra you’ve got to help get us there would be more than enough and extremely appreciated!