Help Bring Annie Home to her Mommy

My name is Maureen Dijamco and I have a beautiful 22 month old daughter who means the world to me. I am seeking help with the legal fees that I will use to regain physical custody of my baby girl, who is under the custody and temporary legal guardianship of my step mother. The next hearing will be on June 8 on St Croix VI. She refuses to relinquish the guardianship and give me back my daughter. For almost a year now I’ve asked countless times for my stepmother to give me my daughter back, but to no avail. My daughter wasn’t even in her physical custody. While my stepmother lives in Maryland, she let my daughter live with a nanny on St Croix (where we previously resided) instead of handing my little one back to me. She gives me excuses upon excuses and conditions not to give me my daughter back. My daughter has been away from me for 15 months now and I refuse to spend more months without her in my home. Nobody has the right to separate a mother and a child. I never neglected or hurt my daughter, I don’t drink, smoke, gamble or do drugs. My daughter deserves the motherly love, care and attention as well as a happy home with me. I wrote a petition to the family court division judge in St. Croix VI to terminate the guardianship, we had a hearing on March 14 where I represented myself and will have the second hearing on June 8, this gives me ample time to find a good lawyer to better represent me and help me regain my baby’s full physical custody. The judge ordered that the baby live with my stepmother, so both my baby and stepmother live 15 miles away from where I live now but I can’t take my daughter to spend overnights with me and it is very difficult dealing with my stepmother because she chooses to be difficult. I worry about my baby’s safety and well-being in my stepmother’s hands. My stepmother is sickly and she takes so many medications, she herself needs care. She brings home tons of work from her school and doesn’t have enough time to truly give my daughter full care and attention. My stepmother is always up till dawn, and I worry because this affects my daughter, she doesn’t have a regular bedtime routine and she sometimes sleeps at 2am which is not healthy for a toddler. Worse, my stepmother has anger management issues and can also be emotionally, mentally, physically and verbally abusive. I lived all my life in fear of her, I lived by her rules and control, but not anymore. I choose to stand up for what is right because my daughter is worth fighting for.



I and my daughter used to live with my stepmother and she supported us with our basic needs, in return I helped her with housework (wake her up in the morning, prepare her food to go, do the laundry etc.) and I did majority of her take home work as a teacher (checking of papers, encoding scores in the school system, creating materials and worksheets for students, sending emails to parents and colleagues etc. to name a few). We have agreed to put my baby under her temporary guardianship so she can claim the baby as her dependent when claiming taxes and put the baby under her medical insurance. That was the original agreement, I trusted her with all the best intentions for my daughter, I never gave my baby up.  

Now my circumstances have changed, I am now married to the love of my life, I now have a job, and I and my husband can provide for all the baby’s needs. My stepmother doesn’t approve of my husband, atleast thats one of her excuses, although he is a wonderful and loving older gentleman who treats me with the utmost love and respect. He raised five girls on his own as a single parent, all of them love him to the very core of their hearts. He loves my daughter and will never harm a hair on that baby’s head.


I ask for your help in my battle to bring my daughter home with me. My husband and I are good hearted, loving people and we all deserve to be together as a family with my daughter. I appreciate all the help, prayers and kind words. Thank you all so very much! May you have a blessed day!



PS
Please read this letter from my brother: Thank you!

http://www.michaeljacob.net/2017/04/an-open-letter-to-my-stepmom.html?m=1