This is my story.

I am now realizing that the epidemic of loving fathers being kept away from their children is growing now more than ever before. I am currently in my own battle to do everything I can to see my kids. I am a veteran and I have a one year old and a 8 year old step daughter whoms stepparent adoption papers were canceled by her mother the week before the final signing all because I made the best choice for my mental health by splitting from their mother after being mentally abused for so long. I believe I was set up by her. She had already been keeping my kids from me constantly making me feel like she was "Allowing" me to see them when in reality it's my right as a loving father. I went to her house one night because I could not sleep and was badly missing my daughters and kissing them goodnight like I always used to. I laid in bed thinking "what am I doing here? my daughters are right down the freeway and I have the right to kiss them goodnight and let them know their daddy loves them" so I asked permission to come to my ex's house to which she gave me the okay. I showed up and she had only one picture stuck to her refrigerator which was a photo booth strip picture with her, a girl and some random man with my daughters on his lap and his face next to theirs smiling in each of the photos... I believe my ex wife KNEW this would trigger a reaction from me knowing that I was barely getting to see my own daughters and yet here they are in a random man's lap with his chin on their head smiling. Somehow she knew to begin recording audio NOT VIDEO .... but audio as I raised my voice at her out of frustration that there was a strange man holding my children when all this time I am barely getting to see them whatsoever. I even FaceTimed my mom because I know that she would keep me level headed even though I was frustrated about how inappropriate, unhealthy and disrespectful it was seeing as we were freshly separated and my girls were already in another man's lap taking pictures. I made threats towards the guy but none whatsoever in any way, shape or form towards my kid's mother as I know better than to do so. My mother was still on facetime as I told her I was going upstairs to say good night to the girls and kiss them as was the purpose for me going over there in the first place and little did I know she was audio recording during the whole altercation and as I went to go upstairs she grabbed me from behind and was yelling stop stop stop! I had no idea why she was acting like that (not knowing she was still recording audio). I told her to get off of me and when upstairs and kissed my daughter's good night and left. Little did I know that she would call the police after I left and make up a bunch of lies including one being that I was drunk and came over for sex and as well as putting a fake bruise on her wrist to match it up with the audio so that she could present her fake story to the court as a domestic violence case with minors involved stating that I grabbed her wrist and forced my way upstairs when in reality she was grabbing me from behind. She has a documented and proven history of doing physical bodily harm to herself and lying to the police yet the clerk signed off on a restraining order against me without ever hearing a word from me or anyone reaching out to contact me to hear my side of the story. They took what she said regardless of if it was true or not and went with it not knowing they were isolating the kids with the unstable parent. I have had the restraining order that includes staying away from my daughters on me now for over 2 months now and have hardly seen my quickly growing girls but honestly it's been about 6 months since I was able to constantly see them, only short visits that Rahab would "allow" me to come see them on her time. The first year of a baby's life is the most important when it comes to bonding and growth of a baby. The baby is now taking her first steps and saying her first words and all of these things I am missing out on because of a fake and false allegation against me including not being able to bond with her. Every painful day I constantly wonder if my kids know I love them, if they think I don't care about them or wonder why I just "disappeared" etc. My ex ruined Easter this year by raiding in on a flawless and fun filled day at the park where my family and I had put together an Easter egg hunt for Veronica and the baby. Everything was perfectly fine and the girls were having a blast. Not more than an hour went by after I picked them up from their mother's house to bring them to the park she begins to blow my phone up demanding and yelling at me to tell her the exact location of what park the girls were at when I had just told her in person where we would be going barely an hour ago. Rahab knew the kids were and have always been extremely safe and well taken care of in my possession especially after being a 24/7 stay at home Dad for some months after getting out of the military. But yet rather than allowing me to enjoy spending time on Easter with my daughters she decided to call the police, lying to them stating that I "didn't have permission" to take my daughters (one of them being Veronica whom she has 100% custody of). She tells the police that her kids were kidnapped and she is worried for their safety...EVEN THOUGH I WAS SENDING HER PICTURES OF THE GIRLS SMILING AND HAVING AN AMAZING TIME. Two cop cars show up as I told her again the park that we were at and had the baby packed up in her carseat. As I am holding the car seat my ex wife walks up with both police officers (strutting like she owns the place) and begins to try and remove the baby from her car seat while I'm holding it. I told her to stop because she was hurting the baby's arms by pulling them and she wouldn't. The baby begins to cry and so does Veronica. Veronica hides behind my dad (NOT her mom) and holds him because she knows her grandpa will always love and protect her. As I am fending off my ex...the police officers start instructing ME to stop and to let go of the car seat. I told them she is the one being hostile and that I have no problem putting the car seat in her car but yet somehow they seemed to be siding with her. Finally they told her "Mam, just let him put the baby in your car" as they saw I was not trying to make things more difficult than it needed to be and Veronica and the baby were crying. As my ex drives off like a badass who own the place with an attitude...she didn't realize that my mother had recorded the whole incident and caught my ex's friend who was riding in the shotgun seat BLOWING US A KISS GOODBYE as if this was some kind of game or like they got what they wanted which was to make a scene and get the kids back at my ex's will. Did I have to give the baby back? Absolutely not. Did I? Yes. Because I didn't want all of the drama and yelling around the girls like that, that like my ex usually causes so I did what was best for the baby and let her go. These situations happen often where my ex will cause a scene and manipulate the situation to make it seem like my kids are somehow in danger when they are with me and trick their minds into believing that I am a bad man. I hardly sleep more than 5 hours a night tossing and turning wondering if my daughters are okay due to the restraining order against me and it feels like every step of the way in court, police etc everything has gone in her favor to the point where I am now selling my belongings just to have money to be able to spend what I can afford which is a couple hours a week with my baby as well as trying to keep up with attorney fees to fight off something that I didn't do. I know my ex wife is filling their heads with false and toxic things about their Dad including the times she told Veronica I am not her Dad even though I have done nothing but love them since the day they came into my life. I am now struggling financially to keep up with the court order of having to pay for someone to professionally supervise me while visiting my baby girl. My ex wife stripped my step daughter of me completely even though hundreds of times she has told me I am the best thing that has ever happened to Veronica and veronica's biological dad is not involved in her life. Veronica has called me Daddy for over a year now and because my ex has always had 100% custody of her she decided to cancel the months long process that we were finalizing for a step parent adoption all because I did not want to be with my ex anymore due to the mental abuse. I have loved Veronica as my own blood from day one and have had the best of times dancing, singing loud in the car, playing basketball, teaching her to ride a bike, daddy daughter dates to show her how a man should treat her when she gets older, movie and candy nights, long hours of teaching her school work and how to read, putting food in her mouth when I couldn't afford to feed myself and the list goes on and on and on. It feels like I am struggling to stay afloat fighting for my daughters while my ex lives comfortably with the majority of the baby's belongings coming from me or my family or my family friends even though she makes substantially more than I do.There have been a handful of times where I will try to support the girls financially and even that my ex will make difficult on me including an instance where I told her I was going to buy a ton of diapers for the baby to which she responded that if I don't get the specific brand that she wanted (the more expensive) she WILL NOT use them. Sometimes I would stay the night at my parent's place after assuring the kids were safe and sound asleep so that I could get a break from the mental abuse of her cussing me out in front of the kids or my family and many other things just to come home early in the morning to my stuff missing or my stuff thrown over the balcony in the hallway or my things hidden and locked in her car because I wouldn't tell her where I slept that night WHEN she wanted to know. Even claiming once that I "stole breast milk" when taking the baby to my parents to watch a football game where I told her the baby would be and come right back to her. It's been hard for me to go to work and focus when I haven't seen my baby for weeks at a time and my stepdaughter in months. I am reaching out for every resource I can to be there for my girls but it's been a rough time this past year and I don't know how much longer I will last financially to keep up with all of this.