My name is Jessica, and I am doing something I never imagined I would have to do, asking strangers to help me fight for my daughter’s future. My daughter, Asia, just turned 19 years old. She is a college student beginning her second year, a hardworking young woman who has held a steady job since she was about 14 years old, and a daughter who has always dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Today, that entire future is in jeopardy. Last year, our family’s world changed in ways I still struggle to put into words. After my marriage ended, the FBI came looking for my former husband, Asia’s stepfather, a man who had been in her life since she was in elementary school. That investigation uncovered circumstances involving child sexual abuse material that ultimately resulted in criminal charges against both him and my daughter. But there is a part of Asia’s story that I desperately need people to understand. Asia was only 15 years old when this began. This was an adult man who had watched her grow up. He was her stepfather. He occupied a position of trust and authority in our home. We believe Asia was groomed, manipulated, and coerced while she was still a child. When he was arrested, however, responsibility was placed on Asia as well. She was arrested during what should have been one of the happiest periods of her young life, her senior year of high school. Instead of simply celebrating graduation, planning a senior party, and preparing for college, my daughter was facing jail, a $100,000 bond, and criminal charges that could permanently alter the course of her life. Yet she kept going. She graduated. She went to college. She continued working. She is now beginning her second year of college while carrying a burden that most adults could barely comprehend, and I have been fighting beside her every step of the way. I am a single mother of four. I work two jobs and take on additional work and side jobs whenever I can. I have paid bond expenses, monthly fees, legal expenses, and the everyday costs of keeping our family afloat. At the same time, I still have children who need food, housing, school supplies, transportation, and everything else that comes with raising a family. I have stretched every dollar I know how to stretch. I have worked when I was exhausted. I have tried to figure it out quietly because asking for help is incredibly difficult for me. But I have reached the point where loving my daughter means admitting that I cannot do this alone. Asia urgently needs $12,000 for her attorney, and we have until September 20 to make that payment. That is why I am asking for help. The money raised through this fundraiser will go toward Asia’s legal defense expenses and attorney fees. I am not asking anyone reading this to decide her case. I am asking for help making sure that a 19 year old young woman has qualified legal representation and the opportunity for all of the circumstances surrounding what happened to her as a minor to be heard and properly presented. Grooming and coercion are complicated. Children and teenagers do not always understand what is happening to them while it is happening. Victims do not always immediately tell someone. Fear, shame, manipulation, and confusion can keep people silent, even adults. As her mother, one of the hardest things I carry is asking myself how I didn’t know. I have replayed my decision to marry this man more times than I can count. I have cried. I have been angry. I have been terrified. And I have wished more times than I could ever explain that I could go backward and protect my daughter from something I didn’t know was happening. I can’t change the past. What I can do is fight for her future. Asia is more than the worst thing that has ever happened in her life. She is a daughter. A sister. A college student. An employee. A young woman with dreams and an entire life that has barely begun. She still wants an education. She still dreams of becoming a lawyer. She still deserves the opportunity to build a life beyond what happened when she was a teenager. If you can donate $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, or anything at all, it matters. If you cannot donate, please share Asia’s story. A share may put this in front of the person who can help us. I know raising $12,000 by September 20 is an enormous goal. I also know that I have to try. Every donation brings us closer to keeping the legal representation Asia needs in place. I am not asking anyone to save my entire family. I am simply asking enough people to help me carry a small piece of something that has become too heavy for one mother to carry alone. From a mother who loves her daughter more than words could ever express, thank you for reading this far. Thank you for donating. Thank you for sharing. And if you are a person of faith, please pray for Asia, for our family, for wisdom for her legal team, and for the truth of her story to be fully heard. Every donation, every share, and every prayer matters. 

Jessica, 

Asia’s Mom