A Serious Request

I got an anxious request from Rachel on Saturday. But first, some background. Rachel is one of the original six HNTers. I'm not sure how we landed on each other's blogs way back when, but she's the one who figured out that we lived in the same town. She's become a very good friend and beer drinkin' buddy (back when I could still do a lot of that). What I got to know about her that she kept off-blog was that she was also a single mother. Very few, if any, got to know that about her. And as time went on, it would come to pass that she would inevitably become a grandmother! This is a picture of her 2 year old grandson, Kaisey.

So, to her request... Kaisey lives with his mom Jean, and her fiancé Bob (no, those aren't their real names). Jean is going to school full time working towards a vet degree. Bob is working two jobs to support the three of them. The other character in this drama is Lou (again, not his real name). Lou is Kaisey's biological father.

As you can imagine, Lou is causing waves. He has not been a part of Kaisey's life in the least. Jean has always had custody, based on the parenting plan that the two of them had set up. Lou does not pay any sort of child support, and has only seen his son on a handful of occasions. Lou has never shown any interest in being a father, and Lou and Jean were never planning on getting married. In fact, Lou has four Family Member Assault charges against him for beating on her when they were together.

Lou apparently found out that Jean, Bob and Kaisey were in town last weekend, and requested to see Kaisey. There was no objection to that, but when they met at the location, Lou served her with custody papers. And while the details are a bit sketchy to me, it appears that at one point, Lou actually tried to walk off with Kaisey. Also known as attempted kidnapping. Police somehow got involved, who suggested that Jean get out of there with Kaisey, as the papers did give him custody rights.

So the situation is this--Rachel has hired an attorney for Jean to fight the custody rights of Lou. Based on his assault record, the fact that he hasn't shown any interest in being a father, and the feeling that this is nothing more than an attempt to hurt Jean. Rachel, friends and family members have scratched and scraped to come up with the money needed to retain this attorney, but they're falling short. Not by much--only about $1000. But it's $1000 that they have no resources to come up with. And that's why she's come up with the Kaisey Defense Fund. Her hope is that some of you will be able to donate a few bucks.

Now, I'm not one to weigh one person's problems against another's. During this weekend, many of you might have contributed money towards the Japanese tragedy. Others of you have probably contributed towards cancer research or some other disease for your own personal reasons. These are drops in a very large bucket compared to the amounts that are needed. I'm a firm believer that the small drops are important. But those same drops, in a much smaller bucket such as Kaisey's (his is more like a shot glass), will make a real difference. So if you've got it in your heart to help out, whether it's because you're moved by the situation, or because you remember Rachel from the old days, please consider making a donation. It's just $1000 that's needed. This should be easy to take care of. Please give what you can--any amount will be truly appreciated. Just click on the button below. I'll keep you up to date with what happens. Many thanks to you in advance.
OK, there's some sort of problem with setting up Paypal's donation button. So if you're going to send money, log in to your Paypal account, and send your donation to: kaysgma@gmail.com
And thank you!