My problem, in a hopeful brief description:

I married a man that I met on the internet. We met and developed a relationship rather quickly. He lived in Florida, I lived in Missouri. We wanted to meet face to face. I just wanted to get to know him a little better, but he said that if he found a way up here that he was staying. So I said, “If you plan on staying, then you are going to marry me.” He didn’t have any children and never been married before. He wanted children. I was 35 years old. I had two children from a previous marriage, miscarried two and didn’t know if I could get pregnant again. So we decided to try right away. Well, he got up here and we made arrangements to get married. I told my ex husband of the plans because I wanted my children to be a part of the wedding. Well, shit hit the fan and all hell broke loose because he didn’t like the idea of me remarrying. Now mind you, my ex and I were married for 17 years legally, so he still had some control and dominance issues. Ron and I then married at the court house. About a week later, I start getting phone calls from the DFS saying that there were hotlines called against my children and they wanted to talk to me about it and do the investigation. So, I immediately took my children in for them to “see” that there was absolutely nothing wrong with them and that all the allegations were incorrect. Then we got another call from a hotline that was about my new husband and the fact that he is a registered sex offender. So, a worker comes out to talk to us about this. Again, all allegations were incorrect. Yes, he is a registered sex offender, but he did not do anything to my children. I was in there constant supervision as I have always been for my children and Yes, I knew of his conviction before he came to Missouri. My husbands’ offense was of second degree sexual assault or statutory rape against a 15 year old that posed herself as 21 with a fake ID in a bar. Anyway, the next day, my ex husband had visitation scheduled for my girls. We met at the Police Department for exchange and I told the officer then that I had suspected that he would do something. Sure enough, my children didn’t show up at drop off time. My ex husband had kidnapped my children. He took the information that was presented to him by another party, off of the internet and used it against me and my husband. He had it all planned out. He had orders of protection filled out and ready to present to the judge the moment the doors were open at the court house that next morning. This is just the start of it all. The night mare continues. I got pregnant immediately, like on our wedding night. When we went into the court room for the protection orders, I knew then that I was pregnant. Protection orders were issued for my husband against my two children (both girls). Then the night mare just kept getting worse. I have a hard time when I am pregnant. I miscarried two children and had a hard time with the two that were successful to term. So I didn’t want to loose this one either. I was extremely stressed about all the things that was happening to my children and to me just because my ex husband was jealous and happened to get a little leverage with my new husbands back ground, which is against the law, but the lawyers kinda have to know this law before they will enforce it. Apparently, no one knew it, nor does anyone ever try to practice it.

            Months went on and we tried to have a custody hearing for my girls. One thing got in the way of another and to this day, it is still in litigation, although the physical custody is with their father.

            Now, about the baby. I had my baby two weeks preme. She had to be born by C-section. She turned breech. I got her home after a 6 day, 5 night stay at the hospital that my husband stayed at my side the entire time by sleeping on the floor next to me all night and stayed with me during the day. I nursed her and things were good. We got her home and everything was just fine until she was 12 days old. DFS came and took her because of my husband’s legal description. My husband had been sentenced in the state of WI for his felony charge and completely released from there with no stipulations on his release. All of his civil rights were restored except for the right to bear arms or hold a political office. He had started treatment while he was incarcerated, but never completely finished a program. This is what they used as a basis of taking our daughter to start with. However, if I had a good lawyer and if I understood the laws, they are actually violating the US constitutional 5^th amendment of double jeopardy. No new crimes had been committed and his offense had nothing to do with infants or related persons. My baby is now exactly 9 months old today. (Dec 25, 2004) My husband has moved back to the state of Florida because his support group is primarily there and there are more jobs available there. I remained in MO so that I can see my daughter, which I have also discovered that they have violated my right of having my daughter in my custody from the very first day. I have it on tape recording of the DFS supervisor denying me this right. My husband has been gone now for 4 months and they are still denying me this right to have my daughter home with me although her father is not in the home. I am trying to fight this with a lawyer that I was finally able to obtain after many long searches and coming up with the funds to do so. (that is contribution from my husband’s family) At the one year mark, the state has the legal option of denying me and my husband any parental rights completely. They have been riding this case out for all that it is worth. Their determination is for Ron and me to divorce. They think that he is this sick man that needs major help. When we try to tell them the complete story of his offense, they say that he is making it up and that we are in denial. They seem to think that there is this deep hidden secret that he is not telling. But yet they will not do anything to prove this allegation on their behalf. My husband is telling the truth. He has no reason to hide anything. They are also using a new law that has just recently been passed in the state of MO that states that if a child of a felony sex offender for any reason, that child can not come home. This is the head line of the law, but the next sentence says EXCEPT FOR IN THE CASE OF MoS 566.034 which is the statutory rape charge, which is what my husbands’ crime is. They are failing to recognize this to the judge who I know has not read the law himself. And they are trying to use this against me for me to have my daughter home with me, because they are in the mind frame that my daughter will never be returned to us, Ron and I, because of the law and that she is comfortable where she is and that think that she should be moved to another home even it is family.

            So, here I am on Christmas day, with no children in my home, no husband or family to cook for, waiting for the decision of the judge as to whether I am worthy enough to take care of my own daughter. I have been asked by several as to why I don’t go to Florida to be with my new family and my husband, and I reply, “If I go, they will find out that I went and yell that I had abandoned my daughter.” I know that they will stop at nothing to make me and my husband look like bad people.

            My prayer is that God will take care of us and restores us as He had promised He would. I believe that my husband and I have been put together for a reason and that my new born daughter is NO mistake. I feel that my story needs to be publicized so that this does not happen to others and so that this small town doesn’t get by with the torment that they have placed upon us, and obviously, so that the protection law will be enforced and so that my ex husband will be prosecuted for having used the internet information in a vigilantism manner against my husband and I.