Let me just start by introducing me and my family.
Me: Jeannette
Husband: Rich
Children: Triton (12), Liberty (12), Justice (10), and Bryson (8)
I was 19 years old when I got pregnant with Triton and Liberty. My beautiful babies were born in August of 1996 at 5 lbs 11 oz and 4 lbs 11 oz. I met my husband when they were 6 months old and we were married when they were 10 months old. In that time, their biological father had nothing to do with them.
In 1997 he decided he would like visitation rights. He took them for one visit, brought them back and decided he couldn't be a responsible father. After that he petitioned the courts to have his rights terminated. The courts told him no, that he had to be responsible for the children as far as finances go. We never saw him again until June of 2000 when he decided yet again that he wanted visitation rights. The courts gave him what he wanted which was to see them every other weekend. At this time, I lived in South Carolina and he lived in Virginia. My husband and I decided to move to Virginia so that when the children had visits we would be close to them. When we did this he ended up with more visitation rights.
In February of 2002 he brought my daughter home after a visit with bruises all over her backside and legs, this is where I made my first mistake. My father in law was in the hospital on his death bed in South Carolina and I needed to make the trip back there as soon as he dropped the kids off to me. He showed me the bruises and said he felt bad and promised to never do it again. I should have had him arrested right then and there, but because he was new to parenting, I gave him a chance. I warned him if he ever touched my children again, I would go straight to the police. He didn't hurt them where you could visibly tell they had been hurt for a while, but he did hold my daughters hands over a fire, pull my kids by their ears across the room and other various abusive things.
In December of 2005 after a 2 week stay at their fathers house, my son came home with horrible bruises on the top of his buttocks and wrapped around his legs. My son told me that his father had beat him with the buckle end of a belt because he kept forgetting how to spell the word "catch". I went straight to the ER with him where he told his story to the doctors, they called the police and their father was arrested for child abuse. It went to court and he was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 12 months in jail, a $5000 fine, and was ordered no corporal punishment. He later appealed this and everything stood except that they took it under advisement meaning that after a year if there were no offences, it would be wiped off his record. After the restraining order was up in July of 2006, their father obtained supervised visitation for a few months for a couple hours every Saturday. After a couple of months he was given visitation rights every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. with no supervision.
During this time, I put in notice that I was moving to Louisiana. The reason I was moving was to work in a Christian children's home, but also it would help us out financially as we were struggling in VA. The courts told me I couldn't move. On December 31st, 2006 he returned my children to me, Triton told me that he hit him on his left hip. I looked at his hip and sure enough there was a fresh bruise on there. I took my son to the police because there was a "no corporal punishment" order. It went to court and in lower courts he was again convicted and sentenced to 12 months in jail, but they suspended 11 months and 27 days of the sentence again. He appealed this also and in higher courts was given an "innocent" verdict because the police officer took too long to take pictures. Because it was was an "innocent" verdict, his prior record was erased as well.
In the meantime, my children were getting harrassed by their teachers at school. I contacted my attorney and he adviced me to get them out of the district. I had nowhere to move within the state of VA so I wrote the courts a letter informing them of the change in circumstances and moved to the state of LA. When we arrived in LA in January of 2007, my children were 10 years old and in second grade (they are both deaf). When we got here, they tested them and immediately put them in 3rd grade. They passed with flying colors and went on to pass the 4th grade with flying colors and are now going into 5th grade. This was a huge accomplishment for them in a year and a half. We recently went to court because their father now wants custody of them because I moved to LA and he hasn't had visitation rights. There was a protective order in effect from January of 2007 to January of 2008. When the protective order was up, he failed to contact them despite having my phone number, my mailing address, etc.
At this court date, the judge ordered me to move back to VA so he (their father)could be involved in their lives. He gave me 30 days to find a place to live, jobs, get my children enrolled in school, and on top of this, find an attorney. There is no protection for my children who, by the way, have no desire to interact with their father. If I do not comply with these orders by August 17, 2008 my children's father gets full custody of my children and there is nothing I can do about it. To say this is a financial and emotional strain on me and my entire family, is an understatement. I am asking that if you pray, please pray for us. We need prayers above all! Thank you so much for reading our story and I will keep you all updated. We go back to court on September 11, 2008.
