Support Emory's Journey to Family Stability

My name is Casie and I am raising money for my son Emory. Emory came to live with me when he was 1 year old. He had a hard beginning to life as he was born addicted to drugs and was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at 2 weeks old. He had the cancer removed and is cancer free to this day. I dated his biological father and he abused me, put a gun to my head, and then pointed at my feet and shot it at me.He missed, thanks given to God. He was arrested for aggravated assault and felon in possession of a gun where he went to prison. Emory's biological mother contacted me at the end of that same year asking me to take care of him while she went to rehab. Sadly time got longer and longer between visits from her. I had to take her to court to get custody so I could provide medical care for Emory. There were threats of burning the house down with the kids and me in it from the father, threats of robbery, and threats of sending someone to hurt me. I tried a few times to allow him to have contact with Emory and it would always go to from Emory to the topic of me. It was awful the things said and also abuse that I was tired of so I began to block him and his friend's numbers that he would continue to message with from prison. I got Emory in 2017 and fast forward to June 2022 dad got out of prison. The first message I received was harassment as to why he was getting taken for child support and how he didn't want to pay. The state did on their own seeing as he isn't biologically mine even tho I didn't want the money. Emory was already so attached to my me as I'm the only mom he's ever really known. My husband came into the picture when Emory was 2 and a half. They have such a close and beautiful bond as well as our children. He has 5 siblings between us. In November of 2022 I got a restraining order against the bio father. In December 2022 I was about to give birth to Emory's baby sister that he loves soooooo much. I received a letter in the mail saying we had to go to court in January and the bio father was trying to take him away. We filed a termination of Rights and won termination in March of 2024. Now keep in mind Emory told the DCS caseworker he does not want to go with his birth parents and he wished to change his last name to ours. We thought it was over after a long road of anxiety and money. They had went past their time to appeal, but the court allows an appeal to be filed on the weekend if the end of your 30 days falls on the weekend. They filed a day after their 30 days on a Sunday. We have tried social workers, DCS, Justice centers, online grants,etc. No one helps with contested adoptions. I had a bad car wreck in 2022 that left us with a lot of debt so loans aren't an option. Our son means the absolute world to us. While on the stand in court, the bio father was asked what it would look like for us if Emory was given back, would Emory be allowed to see us. He said we would be taken completely out his life and moved to another state. This would be detrimental to Emory's mental and physical health the judge said in his decision as we are all he knows. Emory is now 8 years old and loves his family. We have to pay our attorney for the appeal process and filing fees that we are struggling with. Please help us keep our family together. This is hard for me to ask for help and tell this story. We work very hard, but it's just so much with today's economy and providing everything our children needs. We have about 35 days to pay this money. If anyone would like to reach out and pay the attorney directly, her name is Rachel Ratliff in Johnson City, TN. Thank you for taking time to read and a thank you in advance to anyone who helps.