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Sunday, February 21, 2010

Tuesday, December 7th

Where did I leave off? Let's see, Friday's nightmare, the weekend and now the next week. I forgot to mention that on Monday morning, my ex sent me a text message that he'd put a stop payment on the child support check I had just deposited into our account. It seemed obvious to me that money was playing a large part of why he was doing this.

Wednesday night, we met the caseworker from the Department of Social Services. When I introduced myself to him I told him, "I don't think I've ever been so happy and scared at the same time to meet someone." He laughed. I was relieved to actually have someone to talk to about this insane situation and get some concrete answers as to what was going to happen. I knew I didn't have anything to worry about, I'm not a child abuser, no matter what my ex wanted to claim. Let's call the caseworker David. David came into our home, sat down in our living room and we talked for about 30 minutes about the events that had transpired. I showed him the documents, the stop payment text and he said right away that my ex was doing everything he could to get out of paying child support and that this was a legal case. He asked if I had a lawyer and if I was fighting him and I told David, "you betcha."

I asked David if he wanted to see the house, see Danny's room and he said yes. I took him around, he said- "it is obvious this is a very loving home and the kids are well taken care of, unfortunately I have to do my job but I don't see a reason for this case to be open at all." He said he felt it was a waste of time. I was relieved but also upset at the same time. My ex had contacted the Department of Social Services, emailed the director to get the ball rolling. He really didn't care about due process or the fact that the department of social services would NEVER have removed Danny from my custody. Yet, Danny was in Georgia being told that he was going to be living with Daddy (and his new wife) from now on.

My ex wouldn't even let me speak to Danny on the phone for almost a week. It wasn't until his lawyer told him to that he allowed me to speak to Danny and he made it known he was listening in and even recording the conversations. I tried to be normal with Danny, I talked to him about his day but didn't want to hear about his father- I read him his favorite books over the phone and tried to keep the conversation light. It was hard. From what Danny was saying, he was being told that he'd be living there from now on and how wonderful life would be at his dad's. His dad immediately got him involved in the church Christmas play, enrolled him in basketball but waited a week or so before enrolling him in school.

He actually asked me to WITHDRAW Danny from the elementary school he was attending here in South Carolina so he could enroll him in Georgia. Yeah, let me jump on that one...

I was a little busy doing research. It seems the judge that signed Petition of Custody is a member of same church Danny's dad's dad (Poppa) was a pastor of for six plus years. We had a hearing set for December 17, 2010 in which we would appear before the same judge and argue our cases. I was ready to fight but the fight had to be delayed when it was obvious that we wouldn't have a fair trial based on the fact the judge had some type of personal relationship with my ex or my ex's father. We had the hearing moved to another county in Georgia which only delayed the hearing.

Once the case was moved, I had my lawyer file for a dismissal of the Order of Nisi (the temporary custody order) and allow Danny to come home since my ex had just allowed Danny to visit unsupervised with us the week after Christmas. (Yeah, I'm that much of a threat...) The judge quickly reversed the temporary custody order and on January 5, 2011- Danny came home. One month after being gone! Almost a full two and half weeks of school missed. Tons of lies said and the list goes on. The final hearing was scheduled for February 4, 2011.

to be continued...

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2 comments:

the striped rose said...

My stomach is in knots!!!

Jennifer said...

Didn't realize that this is all old news. Glad to realize that now and am assuming that it all worked out in the end. Whew! Glad you got your son back. I can't imagine what all you went through.