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Children held hostage by GA DFCS and Court from a Washington State Parent

per David Sheffield via gofundme.com
May 2, 2014
3 min read

I feel like my children are being held hostage by Georgia State and there is not anything that I can do about it. I live in Washington State, and have for the past four years. I moved away from Georgia to get my life in order. I had made arrangements with my childrens mother to take the kids every summer and during school breaks. She never lived up her to her end of the bargain in letting them come to see me. Two years ago, Georgia Department of Family and Childrens Services took my daughter from their mother. They contacted me and told me that since I was out of state and had not had physical visitation with her in over a year, I had to undergo a process called ICPC. The ICPC process is designed for situations like mine or for out of state adoptions. The sending state (the state the children are in) and the receiving state (the state they would be going to) both investigate the person and home of the those they would be sending the child(ren) to. If both states agree, they children are sent. This process for my daughter took over a year and a half. At the end of the process, AFTER Washington State had approved me and my home AND had sent the approval to Georgia, the Georgia courts terminated my parental rights to my daughter because I was unable to make it to a court date, out of state, with less than 2 weeks notice. During that whole process, I continuously asked about the safety of my boys and was assured by Georgia DFaCS that my boys were safe. I set my attention toward my daughter who was in a worse perdicament. After the termination of my rights, Georgia DFaCS has now taken my boys from their mother as well. They are making me go through the same process and so far, everything that happened in my daughters case is happening again, just faster. I am a good father. I fought for my daughter and I lost because I could not afford a lawyer or a last minute trip to a court case. I cannot allow that to happen again to my boys. It would kill me. I pay my child support for my children. I have never been in arrears. Recently, Georgia state has reinstituted child support for my daughter, even though they terminated my rights. I have tried a multitude of times to find out if my rights have been restored, but have not been able to get a hold of anyone. I have contacted Senators, Governers and everyone I could think of and was given a huge run around and was told they would look into it. However, I have seen no progress with this so far. I need a lawyer! However, I am a department manager and I just do not have the funds it takes to pay a huge retainer and lawyers fees, especially with the amount of child support that I pay currently. I have a court appointment with Georgia in a week and a half which I will be at without a lawyer. Please help me....my children mean the world to me. I can't just let them go. Your donation will go toward the retainer and lawyers fees to get my boys (and possibly my daughter) here with me in Washington State. So many times, it's the father who is running away from his children and not taking responsibility. I LOVE my kids! I have done everything that I could to ensure that I was there for them and creating a safe and loving place for them to grow up. I can't think of a better cause than bringing these children to that safe, loving home they deserve. Please find at the bottom some links that you can read up on if you like. I am by NO means the only person this is happening to because of Georgia DFaCS.