Bringing Jessica's Daughters Home
Donation protected
I met Jamie years ago when her son Dalton, whom she adopted through foster care, became quick friends with my middle daughter in Kindergarten. Jamie & Dalton have become like family to us, and they even became our next-door neighbors earlier this year. She is truly one of the best friends and mothers I have ever known, and Dalton is growing up to be such a good little man.
A few weeks ago, Jamie found out that her only living blood relative - her sister Jessica - tragically passed away from untreated complications due to her diabetes. She also found out that Jessica's two daughters - Jamie's nieces - experienced unimaginable trauma and were now in a Canadian foster home.
Jamie is working to bring the girls home so that she can raise them with their cousin Dalton. She wants to raise these girls to overcome trauma and break cycles as Jamie and Dalton have been able to do together.
(Click here to see this ^^ video Jamie has of the girls from a few years ago).
Jamie has a great career as an accountant, but the legal fees to get the girls into her care across the Canadian border are more than she can handle on such short notice. She found an amazing lawyer who is going to charge her at half his normal rate. Will you help us fill these gaps for the benefit of these girls and in honor of Jamie's sister Jessica?
The funds will be used as follows:
Home study $3,000
Background check $200
Lawyer Retainer $1,500
Motions up to $2,500/each (possibly 2 motions)
Hearings up to $2,000/each (possibly up to 3-4 hearings)
Billable hours for lawyer $150/hour
For more of the story and for Jamie's perspective, read Jamie's letter below:
I’m writing this with great sadness along with great urgency.
My childhood was riddled daily with constant abuse of every kind from a narcissist parent. My earliest memories are filled with fear and shame. Along with me, was my younger and only sister Jessica. She may not have experienced some of the abuse, but the toxic and traumatic environment for which we both were raised in affected both of us in different ways. I took that extreme trauma and decided to use that break the cycle, to better myself, and become the woman I am today. My sister, on the other hand, traveled the path of insecurities, negative thinking, and struggling to overcome the demons in her head.
Soon after our mother passed, my sister secluded herself into a deep depression and lived her life through the gaming reality. She quickly befriended a man who resided in Canada. Jessica was looking for someone or something to fill a hole in her heart from the passing of our mother. She decided to move to Canada to be with this individual indefinitely. For the next 4 ½ years I did not speak to my sister. I had to conclude that as much as I would love to be in her life, she would reach out when/if she wanted to as well.
January 2017, I received a phone call from a Canadian number which was my sister. She was in a domestic violence shelter for women and children. She informed me of the horrid abuse that her husband had inflicted on her, from keeping her secluded from any outside people to daily beatings and weekly threats of death from the many knives he collected. The abuse she recounted from her memories shot terror, sadness, and, to be quite honest, anger in me. Once the initial shock wore off, Jessica informed me that she had two small children, two girls that were 3 & 4 years old at the time. These were two small children that had witnessed and experienced the abuse, just as my sister and I had decades ago. My sister proclaimed that she wanted her children to have a better life and communicated with me that she would begin the process of getting herself and the girls back to the states, to be home with family - me.
Through the years, we would talk frequently via video chat with the girls, myself, Dalton, and my sister. We were making memories while in a hard situation. We were being as patient as possible with the criminal court system in Canada, while making plans of how our family of 3 children under the age of 10 would grow up together. When speaking with my sister solely, I could hear her voice tremble with fear, with sadness, and with hopelessness of when or if her only wish would come to light. I prayed for her, and I continually tried to give her reasons to keep going, to make her laugh, to plead with her to just hold on for a little bit longer. For the past year, there would be months where we would talk weekly, then a month of non-communication due to her depression and agoraphobia.
On August 8th, 2020, I received a phone call that would devastate me from the depths of my soul. I was notified that my sister had passed away - not that day, not that week, but back on June 21st, 2020. Recently, I was informed that in fact that date was the discovery date; my sister’s young girls (age 5 and 7 now) had been with their mother’s dead body for 3 days before they could escape the locks of the apartment.
My nieces have been in foster care since then with no contact with me, with trauma that I can’t even imagine. It breaks my heart that I cannot just go scoop them up and give them a great big hug.
The past two weeks have been a bit of a blur, between utter sadness and eagerly trying to speak with my nieces. I am with no doubt that Jessica would want the girls to be in my home. I have been in contact with a lawyer that specifically deals with foster care and kinship cases. Through answered prayers, this lawyer felt compelled to cut his fees and future fees in half. I am beyond thankful for this and know that it is all in God’s plan. I am in need of financial provisions to obtain legal counsel as I am not in Canada and I do not know that country’s law. I am pleading for help in getting my nieces home, to show these girls a loving home, to ensure that my sister’s wishes are enforced, to share traditions, to share their mother’s love, and to break a cycle of unhealthy & negative actions. Please help me give them a forever home full of God’s love, family, and a better chance at the best future yet to come.
I will be forever grateful and promise to raise my nieces with the same loving principals as I do with my son Dalton.
A few weeks ago, Jamie found out that her only living blood relative - her sister Jessica - tragically passed away from untreated complications due to her diabetes. She also found out that Jessica's two daughters - Jamie's nieces - experienced unimaginable trauma and were now in a Canadian foster home.
Jamie is working to bring the girls home so that she can raise them with their cousin Dalton. She wants to raise these girls to overcome trauma and break cycles as Jamie and Dalton have been able to do together.
(Click here to see this ^^ video Jamie has of the girls from a few years ago).
Jamie has a great career as an accountant, but the legal fees to get the girls into her care across the Canadian border are more than she can handle on such short notice. She found an amazing lawyer who is going to charge her at half his normal rate. Will you help us fill these gaps for the benefit of these girls and in honor of Jamie's sister Jessica?
The funds will be used as follows:
Home study $3,000
Background check $200
Lawyer Retainer $1,500
Motions up to $2,500/each (possibly 2 motions)
Hearings up to $2,000/each (possibly up to 3-4 hearings)
Billable hours for lawyer $150/hour
For more of the story and for Jamie's perspective, read Jamie's letter below:
I’m writing this with great sadness along with great urgency.
My childhood was riddled daily with constant abuse of every kind from a narcissist parent. My earliest memories are filled with fear and shame. Along with me, was my younger and only sister Jessica. She may not have experienced some of the abuse, but the toxic and traumatic environment for which we both were raised in affected both of us in different ways. I took that extreme trauma and decided to use that break the cycle, to better myself, and become the woman I am today. My sister, on the other hand, traveled the path of insecurities, negative thinking, and struggling to overcome the demons in her head.
Soon after our mother passed, my sister secluded herself into a deep depression and lived her life through the gaming reality. She quickly befriended a man who resided in Canada. Jessica was looking for someone or something to fill a hole in her heart from the passing of our mother. She decided to move to Canada to be with this individual indefinitely. For the next 4 ½ years I did not speak to my sister. I had to conclude that as much as I would love to be in her life, she would reach out when/if she wanted to as well.
January 2017, I received a phone call from a Canadian number which was my sister. She was in a domestic violence shelter for women and children. She informed me of the horrid abuse that her husband had inflicted on her, from keeping her secluded from any outside people to daily beatings and weekly threats of death from the many knives he collected. The abuse she recounted from her memories shot terror, sadness, and, to be quite honest, anger in me. Once the initial shock wore off, Jessica informed me that she had two small children, two girls that were 3 & 4 years old at the time. These were two small children that had witnessed and experienced the abuse, just as my sister and I had decades ago. My sister proclaimed that she wanted her children to have a better life and communicated with me that she would begin the process of getting herself and the girls back to the states, to be home with family - me.
Through the years, we would talk frequently via video chat with the girls, myself, Dalton, and my sister. We were making memories while in a hard situation. We were being as patient as possible with the criminal court system in Canada, while making plans of how our family of 3 children under the age of 10 would grow up together. When speaking with my sister solely, I could hear her voice tremble with fear, with sadness, and with hopelessness of when or if her only wish would come to light. I prayed for her, and I continually tried to give her reasons to keep going, to make her laugh, to plead with her to just hold on for a little bit longer. For the past year, there would be months where we would talk weekly, then a month of non-communication due to her depression and agoraphobia.
On August 8th, 2020, I received a phone call that would devastate me from the depths of my soul. I was notified that my sister had passed away - not that day, not that week, but back on June 21st, 2020. Recently, I was informed that in fact that date was the discovery date; my sister’s young girls (age 5 and 7 now) had been with their mother’s dead body for 3 days before they could escape the locks of the apartment.
My nieces have been in foster care since then with no contact with me, with trauma that I can’t even imagine. It breaks my heart that I cannot just go scoop them up and give them a great big hug.
The past two weeks have been a bit of a blur, between utter sadness and eagerly trying to speak with my nieces. I am with no doubt that Jessica would want the girls to be in my home. I have been in contact with a lawyer that specifically deals with foster care and kinship cases. Through answered prayers, this lawyer felt compelled to cut his fees and future fees in half. I am beyond thankful for this and know that it is all in God’s plan. I am in need of financial provisions to obtain legal counsel as I am not in Canada and I do not know that country’s law. I am pleading for help in getting my nieces home, to show these girls a loving home, to ensure that my sister’s wishes are enforced, to share traditions, to share their mother’s love, and to break a cycle of unhealthy & negative actions. Please help me give them a forever home full of God’s love, family, and a better chance at the best future yet to come.
I will be forever grateful and promise to raise my nieces with the same loving principals as I do with my son Dalton.
Organizer and beneficiary
Callie Chewning Murray
Organizer
Norcross, GA
Jamie Christopher
Beneficiary