Help our Daughter

Welcome to our much needed fundraiser. I have been married to my wife for almost 3 years now and we have been together 9 years. I am a career Fireman / Paramedic for the last 11 years. My wife is an EMT Basic for a large non-profit ambulance company. I have been funding this family crisis from our savings account but we are in need of more money for the attorney.

My wife has a daughter from a previous marriage. She is a very smart and well-spoken 10 year old. She has beautiful hair and desires to be a teacher when she is older. She wants to attend a teaching college and be a cheerleader. She is also maintaining A/B honor roll in school and is also a safety patrol member in her school.

My wife and her ex-husband have joint custody of her. The ex-husband establishes her primary residence and has since they divorced and my wife pays child support. We get her every weekend and one entire month every summer. Here is the issue and reason we need this fundraiser. I apologize for the length.

6 months ago she started acting differently. She did not wanting to go home and was becoming more vocal about it. We kept reminding her of how much her dad loves her. Then (now 4 weeks ago), she had an emotional meltdown and was kicking, screaming and begging us to not take her home. This really had us worried. I called her dad to ask him what is going on. The only thing we were told was, "that there are no issues over here. " We took her home. She was terrified walking around our truck and was visibly scared to get into her dads car. The very next day, Monday, we were on the phone with counselors trying to get her an appointment. Next weekend when we picked her up we told her she had a meeting with a counselor on Saturday. Saturdays visit was eye opening to say the least. The session started with all three of us in the room. She detailed the differences between Mommies and Daddies house. We were then removed from the room and the counselor talked to her alone. About 15 minutes later he came out to get us saying that he needs to speak to us. He advised that she is being emotionally abused. She was an emotional wreck and once we came into the room she crawled into my husbands lap and cried. The counselor stated that her dad is putting unreasonable demands on her. He goes into uncontrollable rages and he yells and cusses at her. She said that he calls her "You Bitch; Your a Bitch; Your a spoiled little brat." Remember she is 10 years old. She also said that he tells her mean things about my wife, "if you mom would get off her ass and get a real job." The counselor was very concerned and said this is emotional abuse to a level he has not seen before. The following Monday we met with a family law attorney. She was visibly upset by the words he had been calling her. She filed the necessary paperwork and by the following day we had a Temporary restraining order and a Temporary protective order. We then enforced the orders on Friday, per the judges advice. When we picked her up from school she told us,
It got worse." We were terrified. She said her dad has been hitting her also. She said that he also called her,"Fucking Bitch, You are a fucking brat." We left school and had an immediate counseling session. He was so alarmed at the new developments that he called CPS. Per the attorney we were told to also make a report with the police. She has since met with CPS who took her to a child advocacy center. They agreed it is emotional abuse but the physical abuse did not break any bones so they dropped the case. The CPS counselor called our counselor and told him everything she found. Her words to our counselor and my wife was, "that little girl is in danger; get her out of that house."

We have had our first court hearing and the temporary orders have been extended. The court did not send her home. He is fighting this and is calling his daughter a liar on stand. Our next court date is not until July. We have lots of counseling sessions, driving her to and from school and attorney costs still infront of us. We have to keep her in her school. The drive is 45 minutes from our house. Our gas bill is insane. We have some neighbors that are assisting us but we still have to take days off work to take her to and from school.

We need your help. This money will fund the attorney to get her out of that house. Your donation will substantially improve the quality of this little girls life. No one deserves what she is being put through. If you could donate anything we would be very thankful.