August

Ok, when I last left off, my daughter had gotten pregnant and moved to her dads. To add injury to insult, the sheriff showed up again at my house and asked for my husband. He was at work. He worked far away from home and slept in his car during the week to save on gas. I asked the sheriff what it was about and he said he was trying to serve him with TRO from my daughter. That is Temporary Restraining Orders. She was alleging that she was being physically beat and that she was in fear of her life. This started a path that will probably never be able to be erased. We had to hire a lawyer and then I was responsible for finding proof of her rebellion and her lies about being abused. I live in a small town and people talk. So now everyone thinks that we abuse our kids. There was one incident in which she refused to go outside and do yardwork with the family and my husband pulled her out of the house by the back of her pants, while I was trying to pull her back in. I didn't know what she would do to him next. She has been known to strike him several times in the face. This is not something I taught her. But the neighbors called the cops, saying that he was punching her in the chest and choking her. When the cops got here, they (when I say they, there was about 6 cars and 2 people per car) talked to all of us, got all our stories and they were all the same. He didn't strike her. But it didn't matter, the town was now gossiping. And the neighbors, they were calling us names like n****r, and saying that I was a piece of s&&t and sticking up for my husband and not my own daughter. It was really hard, really hard. We hired a lawyer and took it to court. I saw my daughter as soon as I walked in the building where the courthouse was. I went to her and gave her a hug. I wanted to talk privately to her but her half sister wouldn't let her. Now I still have full custody of her and this little bitch pissed me off. She had no right telling me I couldn't talk to my daughter. I pulled a sheriff to where we were standing and explained that I wanted to talk to my daughter and her sister wasn't letting me and I had custody of her. He asked if I had the paperwork and I said my husband did and he said to go get it. I went to the court side of the building and by then, the lawyer was there and told me not to go back. Her side didn't have any witnesses and we had witness statements, pages of her diary saying how she liked cutting and blood. Statements from her friends who said she never said she was afraid of my husband but wanted more freedome. We had all the proof we needed, but we still weren't sure how it would turn out. Her sister ended up calling our neighbor (they were best friends), and another friend of OURS. All he could say was that we made her do chores. And the neighbors said they never saw anyone hit her. Then it came time for to testify and she said she wasn't afraid of him, he never hit her but she wanted to live with her dad. I got up and my ex tried to say I had called him over Christmas to say I was afraid for my life. He is just such a creepy person who will say WHATEVER, to win someone to his side. He would have been the last person I would have called if I was afraid. They ended up losing the TRO but I agreed that she could live with him. If I took her back, she'd just run away and they fights in the house surrounding her, due to her, involving her and because of her was just tearing the rest of the family apart. She obviously thought the grass was greener on the other side. They agreed to visitation when I wanted but she asked that my husband not be present during the visitation. And I stated that I didn't want her sister or dad anywhere near us during my visits with her. By the way, by this time, I was pregnant. She wasn't very happy when we walked out, stating that she hated our lawyer because she lied, he lied and I lied. But you know, whatever. I had so much to back up what I was saying and I just thank God that I didn't have to present it for others to see. It would have been embarrassing for her. I thought she was better than the other kids in our town. I thought she could be trusted. Boy was I wrong.