My name is Regine, and I am asking for help because I am in the fight of my life to reunite with my children.

It has been 174 days since I have seen or spoken to my children with no due process or findings that I am or have ever been unfit as a parent.

“Sudden, prolonged separation from an active, bonded parent can cause traumatic stress, attachment disruption, anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and impaired functioning in children.”

My children were abruptly cut off from an active, loving parent, and research shows that this kind of sudden, prolonged separation can cause traumatic stress, attachment disruption, anxiety, depression, and lasting emotional harm; when that separation is unjustifiably created or prolonged by an adult in a position of power, it falls within recognized definitions of psychological maltreatment and emotional abuse.

I previously had 50/50 custody and daily involvement in my children’s lives. I did not create this separation, and I did not walk away from my kids. I have spent my savings, relocated to Sonoma County, complied with what has been asked of me, and kept fighting to restore contact with them.

The man who took my children had a documented history of abuse, including domestic violence charges and a restraining order. He had also gone years without seeing his children. Despite that history, he went outside our home county’s jurisdiction and obtained orders through another county under claims that I was unreachable, unfindable, and that he was on the verge of dying from cancer. Those claims were false. I was not missing, and I was not refusing contact. And he was not dying “any day,” as was represented to justify emergency action.

What happened was not just devastating to me. It was traumatic to my children.

They were pulled away from their mother after having regular, daily contact and a shared custody arrangement. They were put in the middle of adult conflict, fear, and false narratives, and now I am the one being forced to pay to repair the damage from a separation I did not cause.

I am now required to pay for therapy and reunification-related costs just to have contact with my own children. The other side has refused to pay their fair share, and the continuing court process has made it difficult for me to get timely relief or have those costs allocated fairly. I have done my best to keep up with these expenses because I have no other path to contact with my children.

It has now been [X] days since I have seen them.

I have continued doing everything I can to stay compliant and keep this process moving until my car’s clutch failed. Now I am at risk of missing my opportunity to finally move forward in reunification simply because I cannot cover the transportation and repair costs on top of everything else. My employment income barely covers the day-to-day living expenses, and after putting everything I had along with help from friends and family, I do not have the cushion to absorb another emergency.

I need help with:

• clutch repair and transportation

• therapy and reunification costs

• relocation recovery to move back home

• court, document, and communication costs

• staying stable enough to keep fighting for my children

This fundraiser is about more than immediate survival. It is about helping me stay in this fight long enough to get my children back in my life and to speak up about a larger problem. The deeper I have gone into this battle, the more parents I have met who are loving, capable parents facing similar injustice. I have built a support system with other parents who are also fighting broken processes, jurisdictional games, unequal burdens, and systems that too often reward the person who creates the most chaos.

I want to reunite with my children. I want to repair the trauma that has been caused. And I want this fight to mean something bigger than my own pain by helping expose a systemic problem that harms good parents and children every day.

If you can donate, thank you. If you cannot, please share. Every bit of support helps me stay in this fight.