Here is a heartbreaking story from a father who wants any help to be able to pay the legal fees. Find a way to help him.
Here is the story:
My name is Aaron Gasper, I’m 26 years old and I'm a loving father to three small children. My third child was born less than a week before creating this account. The oldest is a 3 1/2 year old girl who is not biologically mine, but I love her and care for her all the same. My first born, who is the reason I've made this account (Landen) is being taken from me by his Grandma on his mother’s side. She is attempting to take him from me after his mother Signed over custody, and has even asked her mom to stop this non-sense.
His mom is a heroin addict, and has been for quite some time now. Up until I started this fight for full custody of my son last October, I had him 50% of the time. The rest of the time he was with his grandma. Before I took legal action to gain custody of him from his unfit mother his Grandma continuously claimed that her daughter was in fact around to care for Landen under her supervision. Leading me to believe he was spending time with his mom while under supervision. After a length of time, and finding out months and months later that not only had his mom been getting arrested, but also had multiple warrants out for her arrest. After learning all this I finally decided to take action.
This entire situation has risen from his Grandmothers twisted view that Landen is her child. She believes she is his to raise because of the amount of time she has spent raising him (when I thought his mother was the one spending time with him), and hiding from me the fact that his mother was never home to raise him. Once she realized she was going to lose her ability to take care of my child, because the court verbally stated upon the next hearing custody it was going to be giving me custody based off the fact that his Mother is unfit. Even after that I asked her flatly if she was going to try and take my son from me, she lied and said no, and so I believed for a short amount of time my son would rightfully be coming home, and soon. Taking her at her word was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made. Before the next hearing she changed her tune, and is now claiming that she's been the "sole caregiver" of my son since birth, and that I am in fact an unfit parent.
She currently has temp custody of my son, from filing an ex-parte (which is an emergency custody hearing). There’s no notice to these hearings and because of this I wasn’t there, nor was my lawyer there to defend me of her accusations on why she needs custody of my son. She’s made multiple false claims to gain temporary custody, and since no one was there to refute the claims she made she was given custody of my child and I’ve since only been allowed visitation (Every other weekend, and 1 night a week). I’m currently in debt $11,000 in total to various member of my family, and that number continues to raise almost daily.
Now for a little background on me…
Before having kids I was lost. I didn’t know what direction to head in, I couldn’t keep a job, and I certainly didn’t make the best choices. Having my son changed my life in the most profound way. I all the sudden knew what I needed to do, where I wanted to go, and I had finally figured out the kind of person I wanted to/needed to be. Ever since the birth of my son I spend every single day of my life striving to better myself, and improving the quality of life for my children. I went from nothing, no job, no money, no direction to where I am now.
I’m still struggling to get established, but I now have a car, a place of my own, a good job, not to mention the money (but barely) to keep all the cogs and gears in motion to keep my family happy, healthy, and fed J
Although I’ve never been in a better place, I still have a giant hole in my heart every single day that goes by that I don’t have my son. Instead of me being able to tuck him in every night, and read him a story, he’s sleeping on the couch at his “mammaws” because she’s too heavy to walk up and down the stairs to take him to his bedroom.
Before I go into any more detail on the living conditions my son endures every day let me say that his grandparents are in fact sweet people who really do mean well even though they are extremely misguided.
My ex’ parents are elderly. Her mother is in her late 50’s and morbidly obese. Her Father is in his early 70’s and is Senile. Yet these people think they are better caretakers than I can be for my own child…
My ex’s parents have buried me so deep in debt from stretching out this fight it feels like I’ll never dig myself out. Instead of constantly paying legal fees, I could easily have a new car paid for (Which I desperately need), or even a small down payment on a more appropriate house for my growing family. I’m here asking for help so I can have the right to raise my own child. The fact I even have to do so is absurd, and shows how broken fathers’ rights to their children are in most states.
To check the validity of any of my claims, or to follow mine and Landens story please like our facebook page “Fathers for Their Sons”
Aaron C. Gasper"
Email: acgasper@live.com)
