Crisis support

Greeting Family, Friends, and Loved One’s. I have been a stay-at-home mother the past three years and am a survivor of abuse. I’m in crisis and have been for quite some time. I now need to relocate back to Texas where I can safely start my life over. My family has been suppportive paying my legal fees and travel expenses. However, in these perilous times they have exhausted all of their resources. I was able to get-away from my abusive, soon-to-be ex-husband in May, due to my great grandmother passing away. Our daughter and I traveled to Texas for her funeral. During that time, I decided it would not be healthy to return back to Miami to dysfunction and abuse. In order to force me to return back to Miami, my soon-to-be ex-husband filed for divorce and falsified court documents claiming I’m an unfit mother and had taken our daughter against his will which is not true, to enforce a pick-up order and take her from me. Due to Florida Family Law and Judicial system, I was forced to return back to Miami with our daughter until I receive approval from the court to relocate. I have been fighting my soon-to-be ex-husband in court the past four months for the ability to relocate with our daughter. I am now forced to leave the state of Florida without our daughter because her father will not allow her to relocate to Texas. Here is where the error in Florida Family Law and Judicial system lies, both parents have to agree to a relocation with child or the child must be in imminent danger . Anytime a child witnesses abuse they are in imminent danger, due to the psychological trauma this will have on them. Despite the abuse I have experienced, it has never been my intention to keep our daughter away from her father. Guilt, shame, and fear prevented me from seeking help in moments when I needed support most. I had convinced myself, “I couldn’t fight for my own life and protection without feeling like I had to protect the person that victimized me.” As a collective, we should normalize listening and believing women who are in abusive situations without inflicting more trauma on them. Being a former educator, I have supported youth and young adults K-12 to undergraduate students through trauma. Even with this experience I did not recognize the early signs of abuse. It is my desire to continue uplifting women and youth. It is time we start to protect women as quickly as we are to criticize them. I am a woman facing crisis right now like so many other women globally. Please start believing women when they ask for help and protection. Thank you for your support