Greg and I just recently celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary quietly at home. We looked back on our life together and realize all that we have to be grateful for. We have five wonderful children who have given to us a wonderful togetherness and made our life more complete. Our grandchildren are God's little bonuses that we appreciate a lot.
Our life together started in May of 1974 when Dave Kelly's car broke down and Greg gave me a ride home. Being a rather shy person, he asked me for my phone number and from there we started dating on a very steady basis. We had a lot of fun together. In Sept of 1975 we married and have been enjoying each other since.
I am going to jump ahead quite a few years to 2009, June 28th to be exact. This is the day that our middle daughter Jessica decided it was time to dump her kids and head out with the boyfriend whom she had been with all through her marriage to Kent. It is sad but true, she just could not stand being away from Kent but when they were married everything just seem to fall apart. They lived with us off and on for about a year and in their van quite a bit too. Zack has told me horror stories of how his Mom's boyfriends would beat on him or kick him in the head to punish him and his Mom would do nothing about it. Such a sad time for a six year old kid to deal with all of that. Kent tried but he just gave up, he could not handle the stress any longer and left. He called from time to time to see Zack and the girls but it just wasn't consistent enough. On the 28th Jess seemed angry and upset about something. I fixed a nice dinner for all of us (Jess, the kids, Tabby, Greg too but he was working), and Zack and Jadden always fussed as to who was going to sit where and it was no different that dinner time meal. Jess asked Zack to sit beside her and he got very upset. To keep peace I asked Zack to sit by his Mom for she needed him to and he did but he was happy about it. She got upset and screamed at the kids constantly and Tabby could not stand to hear any more she took her plate and went to her room. After about 10 minutes (or less) Jess got up, went upstairs and told Tabby since she was a perfect MOM she could have her kids, threw two boxes of clothes at her and stomped downstairs. She grabbed Zack by the throat and dragged him out of the house. Poor kid he was screaming for her to stop and so scared. Nothing I could do her say would stop her. I got my cell phone for I was calling the police and Tabby came downstairs shouting at her to stop. Jess of course didn't. She went to Kent's place and threw Zack at him with two boxes of clothes and left. She never returned to our house. Kent called me and said he was bringing Zack back to our house for he was so upset. I told him that was fine and bring him home. Zack was bruised and upset. We got him ready and in bed along with the girls and then sat down and talked out our plan of how things were going to go with all of this. Kent stayed overnight and watched the kids the next day since Greg, Tabby and I had to work and we needed a sitter. Jessica called the next day stating she was heading to Arkansas where she is going to get a good job and good luck with the kids. Tabby called Children Services and they came over on Monday night to talk to us about our options and what we should do. We contacted an attorney who would represent the children and Greg, Tabby and I for full custody so we could get health care for the kids and other things they would need especially a stable secure home. We met with the attorney and because there was abuse, we went straight to the courthouse and gained temporary custody. Kent was good with us having custody of Zack but he does have visitations. Which is fine. As for the girls sperm-donor we could not find him. He was no where to be found. After a few months the court awarded full custody to all of us and we started our lives on a more solid ground.
Zack has been very challenging but with his past history, he needed to gain trust, faith and hope all the he didn't have before. We had him tested for ADHD, Autism and other disorders that could be causing his behavior. He was out of school more than he was in it...and that was not good. Once the testing was completed, the school worked with us to secure counseling that Zack desperately needed. It has paid off, Zack is in a special school to help with his behavior and learning to control his anger. He would love to have friends come and play at his house but that will come in time. We have a few more hurtles to reach with him and after that I think he will be a super great student in school.
One more thing, I love my daughter Jessica and only wish her the best. In my heart I feel she knew what she was doing by placing the kids with Tabby and with us. In my heart I know she knew her lifestyle was not safe for those three innocent children and she knew to keep them safe she had to do something drastic. In time the wounds will heal and I hope one day she will come to visit her children and they can handle seeing her.
