They say 5 is the magic year.
Marriages that last 5 years can last forever.
5 years makes a habit that can't be changed.
Five years ago today I had not yet met my husband. Let me tell you part of his story....
(So many are new to my blog since last year so I feel the story must be told again. I'll go into a bit more detail today than I did last year.)
Five years ago today my husband had the absolute worst day of his life. It started out normal. He got up, went to work at his job of a police officer in a small town. He doesn't talk much about what happened the rest of the day. I cannot go into great detail as he is not a sharing kind of person, and what happened is still very difficult for him to talk about. I don't even know all of the details.
I do know by the end of the day, Jerry had lost everything. His wife had taken their children and fled the state after dumping their foster children on DFS's doorstep. How nice of her. In order to buy herself time to flee, she called up the county sheriff's department and fed them all kinds of stories of abuse. Jerry spent that evening handcuffed at his own desk at the PD. Jerry had no clue this was going to happen. He had a marriage and children, and then he didn't.
I will not go into all the details here, but Jerry was investigated by FOUR different government agencies. He was exonerated of all charges on all levels. Jerry spent every last penny trying to get his children back. They now live in Arizona, he has had no contact with them whatsoever. He sends cards and presents every holiday; which get refused and returned to sender. Arizona kindly takes a large portion of every paycheck though, for these kids that he never sees. I forgot to mention that our state, Missouri wanted Jerry's wife (at the time) and his children extradited back to our state, but Arizona refused. The Johnson county, Mo prosecutor decided that it was not a case he wanted to pursue. So many could have helped...but didn't. It was later found out that Jerry's now ex sister-in-law works for the judicial court in the county where his wife fled to. How convenient!
The kids are 10 and 14 now.
We are sure the 14 year old has been fed a pack of lies.
This is quite normal on parental abduction cases...the one parent purposely alienates the other and makes them out the 'bad' guy. Children can very easily molded to believe anything their mother says. (The 10 yr old has physical and mental disabilities. She has lived well past her expected life span. This gives Jerry hope that he'll see her again someday!)
It is very common in America for children that are abducted by parents and then taken out of the country to get a lot of media coverage and aide. Parents that have their children abducted and taken to a different state within our country are not so lucky. We need at least $20,000 to start the proceedings yet again in court. That is just the retainer fee. We are looking at well over that before it is all said and done. If it were at all possible, we would lose everything again to make it happen. Given the evidence, we are sure that we would win the case but it would be a big, expensive mess spanning both states.
Today, at the 5 year mark, Jerry is obviously happily remarried (to me!). He has a little boy to look forward to every day. But the sting and hurt and pain do not go away. Ever. Jerry trusts in God and knows that He is in control and has His reasons. Jerry never gives up hope though. He will see his kids again someday. Even if it's on the other side.
In close, I ask you to pray for my husband today.
It's a tough week--with today being the 5 year anniversary, and his son's birthday also being a few days away.
I'd like to also ask you to pop over and listen to a song that he wrote about his children. We have no way of sharing it here but if you go to the link it is the top featured song. Our dream is that someday a famous country artist hears it, records it and Jerry makes enough money off of it to get his kids back! Wouldn't that be great?!
PLEASE POST THIS SONG LINK ON YOUR FACEBOOK - OUR GOAL IS TO SPREAD THIS LIKE WILD FIRE IN HOPES THE CHILDREN HEAR AND PERHAPS REACH OUT TO THEIR FATHER WHO AWAITS EACH DAY WITH HOPE....
Jerry would want me to warn you that when he recorded the above album, he had a case of laryngitis and was just trying to get the CD done for his mom for mother's day. We also had a tornado come through right during the recording session--so he just had to take what he had and go.
JERRY WOULD BE WRONG
HIS VOICE IS PURE AND BEAUTIFUL
In close I have a note for YOU, B. Owens. Oh, and you too A.
We know you watch my blog. Google has this great stats thing that lets me see whenever a person visits my site. I can tell what browser you used, what city your connection is in, how long you stayed, what pages you visited. It is ironic that your visits go up when I mention Jerry or Stephen. It is also ironic that Jerry's blog got the same visits back when he used to blog. Go ahead. Watch us all you want. Romans 12:19.
To my regular readers. I apologize for that last paragraph. I just had to do it. Jerry's going to get onto me for that one! It was not very forgiving of me. I struggle with forgiving B and her co-conspirator A. alot. It is hard to do when someone so badly hurts the one you love.
I (Handmade Crafts Done While RVing) is posting this because it's my way of helping this family... I ask that all my blog readers to repost either this post or song link. This is just not a family but a friend too. And I help my friends....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
