There is no pain I can compare to waking up every day without my children.

For nearly two years, my family has lived through a nightmare that I never imagined was possible. My children were taken from me based on allegations of neglect that I maintain were false. In my view, the case has focused on mistakes from my past—things that happened years before my children were even born and before I ever met their father—instead of the mother I had become and the safe, loving home I had built for my children.

I believe my children’s constitutional rights and my own have consistently been grossly violated throughout this process. I believe our family’s right to due process and to remain together was disregarded, and those decisions have forever changed our lives.

No parent should have to miss years of their children’s lives.

I’ve missed birthdays, holidays, bedtime stories, first words, hugs, scraped knees, laughter, and all of the little moments that make up a childhood. My children have grown up without the comfort of their mother, their grandparents, and the family who has always loved them. Those are years we can never get back.

The pain has reached far beyond just me and my children.

After the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court ruled that my children should be returned home and my rights not be terminated, my family finally allowed ourselves to feel hope again. We believed the nightmare was ending. Then we learned that the decision had been appealed and that the effort to terminate my parental rights would continue.

A short time later, my grandfather suffered a fatal heart attack.

I can’t say exactly what caused it, but I will always believe that the overwhelming stress and heartbreak of watching our family remain separated took an enormous toll on him. He loved his great-grandchildren deeply and looked forward to having them back home. Instead, he passed away before he ever got to see that day. My children lost precious time with a man who loved them unconditionally, and they will never get the opportunity to make the memories with him that they deserved.

The pain of this separation has touched every part of my life. It has affected my family emotionally, mentally, financially, and spiritually. There have been days when simply getting out of bed felt impossible. Yet no matter how broken I have felt, I have never stopped fighting for my children.

I refuse to give up on them.

I have completed therapy, participated in mental health treatment and parenting services, maintained employment caring for my grandmother, earned professional certifications, and worked every single day to become an even stronger mother. Everything I have done has been with one goal in mind: bringing my babies home.

Today, I am asking for help because continuing this fight requires resources I cannot afford alone. Every donation will help pay for legal fees, court costs, obtaining records, expert consultations, and other expenses necessary to continue fighting for justice and reunification with my children.

If you cannot donate, I ask you to please share my story. Every person who reads this gives my children and me another chance to be heard.

More than anything, I want my children to know that I never abandoned them, never stopped loving them, and never stopped fighting for them. They are my heart, my purpose, and the reason I continue to stand back up every time life knocks me down.

Thank you for believing that families deserve fairness, that children deserve to know the love of their parents whenever it is safe, and for helping me continue this fight.