UPDATE:: thank you to everyone who has helped us on this journey! It has literally saved my case. The lawyer has been amazing at working with us financially and now we are reaching out to ask for help in the last leg of our journey. We have a court date coming up again in January and I do hope it will be our last. We are looking at at least another $1000 to pay for our court date and in between. I love all of my kids so much there are seriously no words to describe it. I never envisioned my family split the way it is and we are on the mend but we could really use help from our family and friends. Merry Christmas guys❤️

Hazel is my 5 year old daughter and she has lived with me her entire life. I have mostly always been a stay at home mom, or a college mom,  but no matter what it was always me who made sure to provide for my kids. I’ve always put them first above myself and anything else, they are my universe! Hazel has 4 siblings, which include a big brother and sister and two smaller sisters. She is beautiful and smart and so loving. Her passion is animals and singing,  but I think she has some serious artistic talents as well. Before the virus shut down everything she was in gymnastics with her older sister. We have family movie night every night and frequently go on walks in the evenings. 

we are fighting for Hazel to come back home for good. She went on her regular weekend visitation with her father and he decided not to return her. I went three long and painful months without being able to see or talk to my baby. I have exhausted every avenue and hit dead end after dead end. The police couldn’t assist me even though he hadn’t established paternity yet, they said it was civil. Her father filed for custody before I could, and he also got accepted by legal aide before I was. Unfortunately they are only able to assist with one side or else it would be a conflict of interest. I applied with the Chickasaw nation to see if they could give me legal help and they denied my application citing they had very limited funds right now. 

I have never been away from Hazel more than a few days, when she would be visiting her dad, and this has been extremely painful and hard on not only me as a mother, but my other children who miss their sister so much, and lastly Hazel who is a bleeding heart and has not been able to contain her emotions about all of this. 

Since I was unable to afford legal representation I had to go to our temporary custody heading pro se and it was impossible for me to present any of the evidence I had prepared, and there was so much of it, including dated pictures of the last 4 months showing her clean and happy and healthy, letters from her teachers on my behalf, and so much more. 

A guardian ad litem was assigned to our case, thankfully, and their judgement will carry significant weight in this custody case. Temporarily we have 50/50 but I only get two visits a week until October 14th when we go to court again. I’ve seen her twice now and this last visit was the hardest. I have no choice but to force my baby girl who is bawling, begging to stay home with me, into the van to go back to her fathers house. Seeing her break down completely ripped my heart out of my chest, I absolutely only want the best for all of my kids and I am confident that I have Hazels best interest at heart. Always have and always will. 

This all goes back a year and the details surrounding everything are mind blowing and leave you with no faith in our system.

This should not be happening to our family. If you know me then you know my entire identity is in being a mother, and it’s what makes me the happiest. I LOVE our big family! 

If you’re a parent then you know that losing a child is one of our biggest fears, and this situation I’m currently in is a close second, knowing that a child can be taken so abruptly and no repercussions are handed down. The judge did tell me at the end of the hearing that I absolutely needed a lawyer to represent me and I needed to do whatever i could to make it happen. And the lawyer I spoke with last week agreed and said that representing yourself is like taking out your own appendix, you can try but it’s not gonna be pretty. 

we found a lawyer who is willing to give us a discount and who feels confident in our case. We arebehind obviously but without a lawyer I will not fulfill my promise to my baby girl to bring her home. 

Thank you so much to everyone who wrote a letter on my behalf and for the words of encouragement. PLEASE help me fight for my daughter. Please.