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Stacie is a mother of 3. Adrian (8), Daniel (6), and Madison (3).
She
moved to Washington state in 2010 with her husband who was
stationed
there while serving in the Navy. Stacie dropped her
career and moved
3000 miles away from her friends and family to
be with him. She was a
stay-at-home mom for the majority of their
marriage. She opened her
home as a Child Development Home through
the Navy for the last year they
were together. In August 2013 I
had undergone a surgery to correct some
issues I had been having
that were from a surgery I had 12 years prior.
Stacie was
extremely worried about me and had text and called my husband
at
least 10 times during the two hours I was in surgery. They were
not
able to correct the issue so they sent me home that evening.
I was told
by the doctors they had to cut me open to correct the
issue and to
expect up 7 days stay in the hospital. Stacie did
not take this news
very lightly and told me she was going to be
here for me no matter what.
She called me one day and told me she
had gotten a personal loan (which
her husband later on tried to
claim fraud on) and bought plane tickets
for herself and the kids
to come to Florida she would arrive before the
surgery and leave
after she knew I was home and doing okay. Three weeks
later they
flew here and I threw our normal annual October birthday
party
since most of my children and all my grandbabies would be at
my
house at the same time before my surgery. After my surgery,
that
turned out to be no where near as bad as the doctors had
expected, I
noticed Stacie on the phone a lot with her husband
and constantly
arguing with him. She came and told me she was
leaving him and wanted
to know if her and the kids could stay
with us until she figured things
out. I told her that was no
problem at all. She was still on her phone
a lot, sending emails
and taking phone calls, yelling, arguing, and
crying. She closed
her daycare. Then she told me she was going back
but was leaving
the kids at my house so she could figure stuff out with
her
husband and leave the kids out of the middle of it but when she
told
her husband she was leaving the kids behind he told her not
to bother
coming back if she didn't bring the kids so she
canceled her plane
ticket as well. After a few days passed Stacie
told me her and the
kids were going back to Washington and her
and her husband would be
going to marriage counseling. I felt
very uneasy about the entire
situation but I let her go. On
October 27th 2013, Stacie and the kids
left. The whole day goes
by and I don't hear from Stacie until that
night. She is
hysterical. Telling me her husband packed all his stuff
and left,
she had been served with divorce papers (that informed her
she
had to be out of the home by December 19th), the food in the
fridge was
rotten, she had no money or job (no money due to him
previously closing all bank accounts they shared and revoking her
POA), and he took Madison with his
step-mother, who had
apparently flown in from South Carolina to assist
in these plans,
and she had no idea where they were or what they were
doing. I
told her to call the police and see if they can help her and
I
would figure out what we were going to do. I asked my dad for
help
sending Stacie some money for groceries and he sent it to
her. She
still had her car and it did have a full tank of gas in
it so she was
able to get around from place to place. Her husband
told Stacie she was
"allowed" to see Madison
three times a week for two hour
visits in a public place so she
could be "supervised", his
reasoning was due to
events that had occurred one and a half years
prior. Stacie spent
the next 2 weeks searching all her resources for
help and an
attorney. She finally found one and we developed a plan to
return
Madison home with her mother. CPS came to Stacie's house
to
follow up on a doctor's visit Madison had went to where
Stacie's husband
had told the doctor he worried about Stacie's
oldest boy possibly
harming Madison in the most unthinkable way.
I flew to Washington and
the next day we brought Madison back
home. The day after that her
husband took her to court saying
Stacie had "kidnapped"
Madison from her
grandmother (her husband's stepmom) but the judge said
Madison
would stay with Stacie. Two days later in the hearing
for
temporary orders, Stacie was given primary caregiver and her
husband was
allowed frequent and liberal visitations. Stacie's
husband was due to
deploy soon. Stacie spent most of her time
getting Adrian and Daniel to
and from school, searching for a new
home, searching for a job, trying
to work out times for her
husband to see Madison (which had proven to be
more difficult
that it should have been since he wouldn't agree to
hardly
anything unless it was his idea), and trying to make life seem
ad
appear as normal as possible for the children. I watched her
strength
through those times and wished I could do more to help
her. I heard her
cry herself to sleep at night. I watched her
struggle and become more
and more worried and stressed from being
unsuccessful at finding a place
to live. She was running out of
time, we were running out of money, and
she kept asking her
attorney what to do but she was being told to just
wait it out
and try to make things work for now. I eventually told
Stacie we
needed to pack what we could and go to my house in Florida
but
she didn't want to because she didn't want to get in trouble.
I
however, refused to allow my child and grandchildren to live on
the
streets and eventually she broke and we decided we had no
other choice.
We packed what we could and we left. Shortly after,
Stacie's husband
deployed. She informed her attorney what we had
done and her attorney
withdrew from the case. Stacie spend the
next weeks during Christmas
and New Years on the computer
searching for her options and new attorney
which no one would
take since she had violated the court order of
removing the child
from the state. She told me she sent her husband some
emails
telling him they were still in Washington but she was hoping
she
could get to him without his step-mother's influence but it
didn't work.
She had planned to return in January to Washington
with Madison to try
and get an order for her to be able to
relocate but when her husband
came back from deployment and she
told him where they were, he filed
contempt of court. She was
served with papers that ordered the child be
returned before the
court hearing. She found an attorney to help her
very last minute
but needed $1250 to retain her. She had paid $300 of
it to her
but did not have the rest. When her and Madison landed
in
Washington a friend had worked her magic with her church and
the
community had donated the remaining retainer fees (nearly
$1,000).
Stacie paid it all to her attorney and broke down crying
for the
generosity of the church and community. At the court
hearing Stacie
was found in contempt of court, fined $500 in
attorney fees, $150 in
court sanctions, and 10 days jail
(suspended) for removing Madison from
the state of Washington
without the courts permission. Stacie was
devastated. Her husband
was rewarded make-up time of 5 days on top of
the already planned
out visitation schedule they had agreed too. Stacie
saw Madison
for 24 hours every 6 days until this time was made up in
February
where they then started a 50/50 visitation schedule that
Stacie
did not want Madison to undergo but her husband had
demanded this
schedule and wouldn't go for anything else no
matter what Stacie offered
him even though the court order
clearly said he had frequent and liberal
visitations, her husband
refused to allow that. Stacie paid the fees
and has been living
in Washington ever since battling accusations of
sexual abuse
from her husband saying Adrian and Daniel sexually
abused
Madison. She has seen a counselor where she did make a
statement but it
was completely outside her language that I've
come to know of Madison
and it was made after 2 months of not
seeing her brothers but shortly
after the long period of time
spent with her father. The counselor
believed Stacie's husband.
The Guardian Ad Litem believes Stacie's
husband. Stacie can't
seem to get it into anyone's head that these
things are not
normal of her daughter but no one listens. Even after
Stacie
being a stay-at-home mom, spending far more time with
the
children than their father did and still, no one believes
her. Adrian
has been seeing a counselor since all this began and
he has opened up
about the way his father treated him. About the
way he made him lie
about things. About his dad exposing him to
things. The Guardian Ad
Litem knows this but has refused to
acknowledge this. Even Adrian's
counselor told the GAL that she
felt Stacie's husband was trying to get
her to say something she
didn't mean but the GAL refuses to see this.
This case is set for
trial in November. Stacie needs help with paying
for her
attorney. We've paid out all we can squeeze out. Loans,
credit
cards, friends, we are out of options but we refuse to
give up this
battle. Stacie just wants to return to Florida to be
with her family so
she can get on her own feet again and to have
all three children with
her. Not two of them. He will be
stationed wherever the Navy decides
they need him in two years
anyways but he refuses to let Madison go even
though Stacie has
offered very very much visitation times but not too
much as to
harm Madison at her young age.
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