In my 37+ years of life, I've only ever considered creating a GoFundMe once before. I didn't feel fully at peace about it at that time, so I decided not to and found other ways to achieve our immediate financial needs.

This time, we need this, and have no other options. After the tragic house fire our family experienced two weeks ago, we were hit with another massive blow. Three of our children were taken by their other parent due to that parent filing declarations full of misinformation and blatant lies. They used this already stressful situation to manipulate the courts into falling for their facade. We are confident that the proof we have to show the courts will show beyond a shadow of a doubt that those children are safer with us. We have kept them amply clothed, fed, and housed during this displacement, and they never missed any school or appointments over it. None of the children taken were even home when the fire took place. They were all at school. By the time the firemen left the scene, the fire had been officially ruled an accidental kitchen fire.

We had just paid for a large enough Airbnb to house our whole family when half of them were taken.

We now have no cash left to retain a lawyer, but we cannot leave the safety of our children up to chance. There are a multitude of reasons these children live with us full-time and are primarily in our custody, and we hope you'll trust us in that we are 100% who our children need to be with in order to keep them safe.

We expect to receive a decent tax return, but we don't have time to wait until then to retain a lawyer. We need to get our children back now, and we appreciate ANY help we can get. If you are interested in offering us a loan, please reach out to me about it. We are absolutely willing to pay back any money that anyone is willing to loan us instead of donating.

This (retaining a lawyer to help get our children back) is our top priority at the moment, but we are also dealing with a massive restoration that has made our home uninhabitable. We do have good renter's insurance and an amazing landlord/homeowner, but we are only being reimbursed for things by our renter's insurance, so we have to have the cash upfront.

At this time, we are prioritizing the lawyer (retainer is $4,500), and anything beyond that will go towards helping smooth this transition of being displaced for the next couple of months. Thank you all so much, and we love you.

The Garcia (and Harrell, and Redmond) Family ❤️