Help Chrissy get custody

Hi my name is Chrissy,

I am reaching out because I am seeking help for financial backing to be able to hire a lawyer to pursue custody of my younger 2 children. Their older sister is an adult now and lives with me. All three of my children lived with me during the year of COVID and unfortunately I experienced severe effects from COVID, and was hospitalized extensively during this time. I had a massive recovery journey that is still part of my life but to a much less intrusive extent. Their father took me to court and made the case that he could take care of them better because of my health. He has maintained majority of custody since then.

I recently found out during this time he has been convicted of domestic violence against the step mom who left shortly after. This summer my youngest came out to me as gender queer and due to the unaccepting environment at Dad's house he's struggling with self-harm. I got them connected with mental health support here in WA & both children received trauma diagnoses this summer.

I send food to them consistently twice a month at Dad's house because they are responsible for cooking their meals at 10 & 12 years old and both state dad often forgets to get groceries.

They both have adult teeth being damaged from extended exposure to decay on their baby teeth.

I tried to approach this in the courts in WA on my own & was able to get some help but unfortunately they had to return to New Mexico because that is where court decisions must be made.

Since returning back to his care they have not had any access to a therapist, dentist, and their father refuses to even discuss gender affirming medical care. Right now he has the majority of parenting time and my goal is to not take them away from their father but have the time with him be on a shorter scale to hopefully decrease the amount of healing that will need to be done for both of them.

I got connected with a fantastic attorney in Las Cruces that is working with me and advised me to start saving for a Gaurdian At Litem, a court appointed lawyer for the kids, they investigate and assess what is in the child's best interest.

I don't want financial access to legal services be the only reason I can't provide them a safer home. The advice consensus is this is too complicated to navigate alone. I need legal representation. I understand not one person has the answer for this but any donation towards the legal fees and any love, good vibes, and prayers are also appreciated. Thank you very much for your time in reading this.