Really need help and there is a lot to read so you can see what my current situation is like. Please read it and if you can, donate. Hello, my name is Ricky Stewart a retired Army veteran, received medical retirement if your wondering why I look so young. I am a father a three and a husband to one. My kids ages are 11, 9 and 6. In August of 2013 my kids were taken from their mother due to extreme and repeated cruelty. Youngest child has been found under her bed crying, the mom was beaten and put in the hospital, had a trash room where they stored trash and where rats lived, a rat was picked up by the middle child and was mistaken for a kitten, family pets were killed in front of them, my son was with pellet gun several times and there was illegal substances given to them via digestion. My son was behind in school and had speech issues and the youngest who was 4 at the time still needed to be potty trained. We had such a hard time, drained my 401k so we could buy everything that a large family needs all at once instead of gradually getting over the years as children get older; a place to live, beds, clothes, extra furniture, toys, school supplies and other items and consumables. I was paying current child support and back child support during the time they were removed from their moms house, a total of $408.00 a month. Once I was granted temp custody that was supposed to take a year while their mother completed her case plan to get the kids back they stopped my current child support but I still paid back child support. I had asked the judge if we could lower those payments since I was paying, now, 100% support plus the $200 in back payments. I live in Kentucky and they were taken from Arkansas. We had to make arrangements to go back and forth to court and the mother was ordered visitation so we had to make trip halfway to Arkansas to visit their mom. We made several trips back and forth, the case was only going to last a year but ended up going on for 15 months. The mother divorced the abusive step dad and remarried in a three month span so they had to add him the case plan also when this started I had two kids, In month 6 of the hearings (we had one a month so the court could check up on kids), I was blessed with the third child through a paternity test during the placement hearings. Yay.... Lol she is just like me and she is now 6. So we grew and as we so did the amount of stuff we needed and we had to get a minivan. Month 8 we ran into additional issues with my son concerning his conduct on the bus with another child, in a manner that I do not want to discuss really and also found out that he was "behaving" or "treating" his sisters in the same way. That led us to have him see a therapist along with his sisters. That is $30 per child with Tricare every week . While in therapy, we found out that while living with his mother an old child or teenage male had done this to him when he was 7 and thought that those actions were ok since no one the told this to reported to the CPS/DHS or crimes against children. We did, we had to, we called CPS and they contacted law enforcement but when they questioned his mom she denied it and the case was close and was considered unfounded. We also filed a report on him for his behavior with the girls, its the law and you have to, but it is a child on child issue and CPS doesn't get involved with child on child, they do forward it to the local PD and they can choose to come by and see if everything is ok. We continued with therapy and drives to Arkansas and Tennessee for court and visits and quickly running out of money I had lost my Job as a supervisor $32,000 year my wife didn't work since we had children in the home, it gave her the opportunity she always wanted, to be a mother. Now $32000 a year and my $800 check for retirement pension wasn't much for a family of five, but I didn't have any money and we still had to go to court and visits and pay for therapy. I was out of work for about a week or so and found another job and it was $10 an hour. But lost it because I had missed to many days due to the case and court orders. At this time I haven't seen any child support paid to me and I was still paying in on the back child support. I again got another job and another. We were in debit at this time and we were about to go to court for the final time. By now we had grown in debit and grown as a family. I was told that the kids were going to go back to their mom and if didn't have an lawyer of my own to seek custody that I would not be granted permanent custody. They were wrong, I recieved custody becasue as I got to go in front of the judge and present my case to keep the kids up my middle child reached over while I walked by and gave me a huge hug. The judge also ask the children to come up and he asked them where they would like to live, they requested to do so because they were told that the judge may take that into consideration. When the court reached a desicion the judge said that the mother had completed her case plan and complied with all the courts requirements and is now found to be a fit parent and could gain custody. The father is also fit and complied with the court and made every trip to court and visitation and no reports of abuse or neglect has been reported and as the father walked up here his daughter hugged him and that there was a bond there that developed in a short amount of time and could not be ignored and this carries weight with the court. Because my daughter hugged me and said I love you I got custody. We are now two years in and we have had a lot of ups with some downs as every family has and we are a transitioning family so it made things a bit more challenging. So to current events, I was told two days ago that my employer would work with me since more issues have came up. I have missed a few days and I have been late. I can't sleep well at night because of stress and I couldn't get up in time. I have gotten behind on bills (every bill) and my minivan is shot. Since we have had full custody the mother has called them 3 times on her own an twice to call them back because they left a voicemail. She hasn't made any attempt to visit and still no child support nor has she followed through with the few with things she did offer to do to help out. Remember I was paying back child support at the start of this and my balance has been the same for 7 years, no change. The day I started paying child support through the child support office and not through the clerks office as I had been and as agreed in our decree, I was $5000 behind, why because she had told them when she went get Food Stamps I had never paid anything and they didn't blink an eye and went with it. This year they took most of my income taxes and some to pay off a student loan, the amount for child support was $4780. I did receive a little back because as they were processing my lump sum payment I was paying weekly so I got back what I overpaid and we used it for school clothes and supplies for this year. Three weeks ago my youngest daughter started acting out real bad and it was causing some stress on the family. She was receiving all the attention but not in a positive way. Did the exact opposite of what we asked, did things because she wanted to and told my wife she didn't like her at all and didn't like me very much. She had told a little girl on the bus about the things that happened at her moms house. Now my 6 year old is smart and I mean she is smart, a 1st grade child in a 2nd grade class. Can say words that my 11 year old has problems saying. She told the child that all those things that took place at her mom's house had happened at home but didn't specify whose home it happened in. When we asked she told us that she did it on purpose that she could have them taken away and sent back to their moms house. She knew that the girls dad was a law enforcement officer. She know what would happened cause when she came home she had asked if anyone called from the school and if not then they might call. When we told her that it was wrong and we could get in trouble or worst case we could go to jail she asked if she could visit us there. We said no you can't but why would ask us that she said, "in case I do it again". Didn't take long to understand why she did it and why she had been so bad, it was because she missed mom. I scheduled for her mom to come get her for a while and wrote out terms for an extended visit and asked her mom comes and gets her because my mini van needs sensors, battery, transmission, battery, three of tires are plugged and we couldn't afford or chance driving down there. She rushed up here that weekend because it was her baby and her favorite. She seemed ok and she seemed like she did change and I was ok with it so the youngest child went to Arkansas knowing that she is coming back. She called every day but things weren't so awesome. She had planned to keep her and so I had to borrow a car and go down there with little money. Now she is back and she is better than ever. Now my son, "the boy" has hurt another child the same way he was hurt and he had done to the other child on the bus. When we asked he felt like he had to. We took him to crimes against children unit and they said they he needed inpatient treatment in mental health facility. I don't want to tell you everything he had said or done to get to this result. My insurance doesn't cover it. So I can't get caught up on any bills, can't get my car fixed, can't send my son where he can get help. I have had a lot of bad luck and I don't know how to get through it. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I know some people offer reward levels but I can't. I can send you a link where the court doc is showing what the judge said about my daughter hugging me and how it helped his decision. Please pray for us and if you can please give a little and share the link every way possible.
