I am a hardworking dad that put his blood, sweat, and tears into building my family and providing for them. My son was born on October 12, 2023, and that is one of the greatest days of my life. I was happy, afraid, and overwhelmed all at once. From my perspective, the future was bright and happy; I had it all. Then another hurdle in life hit: I was let go from my corporate job a week after my son was born.

After taking a day to myself to figure out a plan and not stress my then-girlfriend out without a plan of how to get through this, I took a beat. Step one, I used the Yellow Ribbon Program as a Navy vet to get security certs to improve my chances of getting a new job. Along with using that program, it provided a stipend for 2 months of $1900. Then I had a side business and signed my first customer, providing $1500 a month. Finally, I would go to a blood clinic for an extra $100 for groceries. With the support of my roommate, who took on the full rent of the house we shared to support us, this all paid off in the end because in November, not only did I pass the security cert exams, but I also got a job with a significant salary increase plus a paid move to Tennessee. We talked over our options as a family and decided to take the job and move to Tennessee.

Fast forward to now, my girlfriend and I broke up. I spent all of 2025 working on the relationship to save it. Meanwhile, she refused individual therapy and couples therapy multiple times, and the final attempt was before my son's birthday. Since January, I have been dying by death of a thousand cuts; nothing I do is enough, and I am not enough. She has acted as if coming to this state has been the worst thing to happen to her, even though she is a stay-at-home mom and everything is taken care of bills-wise. We were even building a community of friends here. Then things escalated on October 27th. We had agreed to not impact our son's life and complete the custody paperwork and process through the juvenile court. She was texting me like normal, and I was getting groceries. Then, when I got home, she was gone, and my son was gone. She has fled to Texas and has ignored the courts, my lawyer, and the detective with the custody interference case that she needs to appear in court.

I had to chase her to Texas and hire another set of lawyers to register the custody order and restraining orders granted to me by the court. She is now locked into the legal process, but I have spent over $14,000 to do all this to protect my rights as a parent and get 5 minutes of time with my son. Up until December 17th, I had not received any chance to have parental time with my son because she refuses to be civil and respect my rights. I need your help to keep this fight going so she can't flee or waste more money on the legal process, which should go to benefit my son. Had she not fled, this only would have cost $4000 to register the joint custody documents in the court to protect both our rights.