Lilly's wish.

Hello friends, My name is Donnie and I am am active duty Marine living in Southern California. A few years ago I was reunited with my high school crush Heather. She has two girls from previous marriages. Heather and I married just before I deployed for my sixth time. I traveled to the Republic of Georgia to train and advise their troops and immediately deployed again to take them to Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, Heather gave birth to our daughter Lilly. When I returned to the states I spent about 9 months living in my office/car/tent while my girls lived in Oregon. Last summer I moved them down to live with me on base but are curruently involved in a legal issue that has taken a heavy toll on myself, my marriage and my children. Unfortunately, thats all i can say about it, but fortunately for me and my kids, over the last 17 years, I have made many life long friends in the Corps. Luckily, we are a Marine family and will emerge from this stronger than before. To date we have spent nearly ten thousand dollars on attorney and court fees, as well as travel funds back and forth to Oregon.  Most likely, we will spend a lot more than that in the coming years before this is finished with subpoena fees, travel expenses, etc. The biggest "potential" victim out of this is our daughter Lilly. See, the rest of us have already been through plenty. My dad wasn't in my life growing up, my girls dad's didn't stick around and my wife was raised solely by her dad and grandma. Luckily, I was raised by an amazing step father (step-family really) who treated me no different than anyone else. My girls are my girls regardless of who the father is. The problem is that if we lose this battle, and one if my girls has to stay in Oregon, I will send all of them home. I would prefer that all three of my girls live under the same roof and grow as individuals together than for them to grow apart. I cannot imagine not having my siblings with me as a child. As for me, I would find a way to make it work. I've survived 7 deployments in my career, I'm sure I can manage to live alone for a few years until I retire and we can all be together again. But what about Lilly? Lilly has an opportunity that the rest of us were denied. She has a chance to see her mommy AND her daddy nearly every day of her life. My wife and I didn't have that chance. My oldest daughter didn't either. The three of us all have siblings that we didn't grow up with for reasons out of our control. That weren't there for us to pick up or follow around the back yard. She gets that shot. Now I've never been good at asking for help. We have what is becoming a solid plan for what comes after my Marine Corps career, but for now, we don't make much. So here we are, nothing to lose, and possibly everything to gain. Thank you for your support.