My family was recently rocked by the devastation of having my precious granddaughter, Annie, ripped from our home. It’s a long and messy story, but Annie has been through so much and was finally thriving. Her mom is my daughter, EmmaLee; she currently isn’t allowed to have any contact with Annie. Her dad’s name is Xavier; he’s currently only allowed supervised visits. A neighbor/“friend” was “helping” them and through a web of lies, manipulation, and preying on young naive parents this woman (Desiree) convinced my daughter to sign over custody of Annie to her. That was done on 7/30/2024. By 8/21/2024, after being in contact with me for 6 days, Desiree asked me to take custody of Annie. She and I discussed the matter at length and agreed I’d visit her and Annie the first week of September; then return the first week of October to bring Annie home with me permanently. Permanently meaning until Annie’s parents completed the requirements to be fully reunited… or literally permanently if they didn’t fulfill the requirements. In Tx 6mo of established residency is required for our courts to have jurisdictional authority to preside over the matter. Desiree and I planned for me to file for custody in Tx at the beginning of March when that 6mo had been met. One day after all the plans were made (8/22/2024) Desiree requested I take Annie with me at the end of our September visit. I wholeheartedly agreed. On 8/30/2024 Desiree called me frantic to say Annie was in danger and she wanted to know if I could be there that weekend. I instantly made arrangements for my children and my mom and I drove to TN. We picked up Annie 17hr after Desiree’s terrifying phone call.
When we got my sweet granddaughter to Tx on 8/31/2024 she was extremely delayed developmentally. At that time she was 8mo old and was about 4-5mo behind. I had her evaluated by a physical therapist quickly after arriving who gave us a home exercise regimen and we set to work. In the short 3.5mo Annie was here she learned to love tummy time, gained lateral protection instincts, started rolling all over the place, went through all the crawling stages and crawled for the first time on Nov 26th! Once she crawled she was off to the races and was literally into everything; which my family loved. She learned to go from lying to sitting and sitting to lying and she started trying to pull to stand without assistance. On top of all that she was making significant progress on her head. She wears a helmet for a flat spot. For those who are unfamiliar, simplest way to express the progress is she was at a 14 (0-5 is considered within normal limits) when she got her helmet on 8/16/24. At her last appointment on 10/31/2024 she was at an 8.3! She was scheduled for another appointment on 12/12/2024 and undoubtedly had made more progress, but she was taken 2 days prior.
On 12/10/2024 Desiree showed up at my door unannounced and stated she was taking Annie back to TN. When I asked her why her only reasoning was I’m the guardian and I can do what I want. She ripped our sweet baby from us without even allowing my other children (they were at school) or my husband (at work) to say goodbye to her. Our family is devastated. Quite honestly the only word I can find for how we’re feeling is broken.
First and foremost we beg that you go to our Lord and Savior in prayer with us. We know he hears our cries and nothing could be more valuable than your prayers.
We’ve set up this page to humbly ask for financial assistance to fight for Annie. Aside from legal expenses, because we have to fight in the Tn court system, we’re expecting additional expenses to travel back and forth. All funds will go directly toward the expenses associated with getting Annie back.