Adriana Grace came into this world on October 26, 2020 in Kingsport Tennessee. She's a beautiful and inquisitive 22 month old, who means the world to her Gigi and Papi. Unfortunately, her parents are completely incapable, if not downright dangerous. Her birth father/donor she was born to is an abusive person, small minded, petty and viscous. He suffers from 'small man syndrome' (4'11-5ft only) and enjoys hurting smaller and weaker people, especially women and children. He's also someone who has previously lost custody of her older sister Kylie, as well as his child from a previous relationship. He has a slew of arrests for Domestic Violence, (8 arrests, one felony conviction) and her Mother, my step-daughter, Emily suffers from extremely well documented mental health issues from the age of 5 until present day, never mind that she's lazy, entitled and incapable of any sort of basic human decency. Needless to say, they should NOT be raising this child.
In October of 2021, Emily called my wife Gretchen and begged for help. BabyDaddy had assaulted her AGAIN, so Gretchen drove to Tennessee and assisted to get her out of ANOTHER Domestic Violence situation stemming from the father beating her AGAIN, and both Adriana and Emily came to live with me and my wife. We had hoped to assist Emily (Adriana's mom) in getting her head straight and becoming a functional, capable adult.
This was, mind you the SECOND Time that Emily had to be taken out of this same exact precarious situation. The first time was almost three years before, with her first born daughter Kylie Rose. This assault ended with him (same BabyDaddy) having a felony conviction for Domestic Violence and Assault. Emily's father Fred assisted her with leaving THAT situation, She fled the BabyDaddy with her Father, my Wife's Ex Husband Fred and began living with him and his new wife. (Gretchen and Fred's marriage BTW was completely and utterly destroyed by Emily and her horrible, unconscionable behavior) Eventually, due to her inability to do the 'right thing' she was arrested for theft while working at WalMart, and then she abandoned Kylie, and went back to the BabyDaddy in Tennessee. Subsequently, her other Grandpapa Fred and his new wife have taken Kylie in, gotten full permanent custody and are raising her with Gretchen and Me as co-parents, as at the time, Gretchen and I were not married.
Emily is the epitome of a entitled Millennial, and unfortunately this is reflected in her inability to make good judgement calls vis-a-vis raising her daughter. She is wholly incapable of maintaining a job, an apartment, nor paying her bills. To her it's "YOLO" 24-7 and damn whatever consequences. She seems to view her daughter as a 'prop' for her social media, and has no clue as to what TRUE motherhood involves. I for one REFUSE to allow Adriana to be caught up as collateral damage.
As time progressed, and due to her mental health, and her near-constant bad decision making, she reverted to form, at which point I was forced to have her evicted from my home, as she had totaled my truck. After the accident, rather than doing the right thing, she fled causing her to be charged with a misdemeanor hit and run, (6 months probation) and showed zero remorse. Coupled with having been fired/quit MULTIPLE Jobs while living with us, I was finally done with her HORRIBLE attitude and inherent laziness. At this time, she left Adriana in our custody and care, on a verbal basis as her Grandparents live in a deed restricted "no kids" community.
This worked for a period of time, up to a visitation that went tragically wrong. On 26 July, Emily went crazy... no rhyme, nor reason. It's only what I can consider a mental breakdown, and assaulted both her mother and Grandmother, who had taken her in when I evicted her. Adriana was on a weekend visit when this happened, and my wife Gretchen was in the process of picking up Adriana when everything went wrong. Long story short, my wife, in defense of her 82 year old mother, was arrested for assault and battery for beating Emily with a police baton. The police declined at the time to properly investigate the issue as to them, it was an open-and-shut case. However, as of this writing, her (Gretchen's) lawyer is in the process of making a motion to dismiss the case. It seems the State Prosecutor has not filed charges as of yet, and from what we understand is dis-inclined to do so, as information has come to light that Emily was the aggressor.
After this incident, again Emily still allowed me to take care of Adriana, as she was now forced to live in a Battered Woman's Homeless Shelter, as she had burned the final bridge with her family. She literally had -nothing- and since we had been providing a safe and comfortable home for Adriana, it was in Adriana's best interest for the verbal deal to keep going. However, what I didn't know was during this entire time though, it seems that she was STILL in contact with the BabyDaddy. On Wednesday 27 July, the Hillsborough County Sherriff's Deputies showed up at my door at 10:30pm demanding I turn Adriana over to her mother. As we only had a verbal agreement, I acquiesced. She was pulled screaming "Papi! Papi!" from my arms.
The next morning, 4 August Gretchen and I immediately filed paperwork for custody, as we felt that Adriana was in potential danger. We then on August 5th had to take the paperwork to the county Sherriff where she was residing (Lake County). We then over the weekend (Late Saturday afternoon, August 6th) from friends who were and are watching the situation, were informed that Emily YET AGAIN returned to the BabyDaddy in Tennessee (anyone seeing a pattern here?)
We raced to Kingsport Tennessee on Sunday.
As Hillsborough County felt that Adriana was NOT in 'operational immediate danger' they did a standard '20 days to respond' summons. Knowing full well that IF she had returned to the BabyDaddy, then my Granbaby was in absolute danger. On Monday Morning we got an emergency Custody Order that placed her back in our custody that day. When we recovered her, with the assistance of Kingsport PD, she was dirty, hungry and tired. She also, in the 4 days that she had been with them, was showing signs of being injured and having nightmares. Where before she was 'normal cuddly' she became absolutely clingy. She also had issues with self harm, where when we'd change a diaper, if she squirmed and we admonished her for squirming, she's start crying hysterically, pulling her hair and hitting herself. My neighbor who is a child speech pathologist with a minor in Child Psyche, said that's a sign that she was hurt/abused when being changed, as she hurts herself, rather than letting/having someone else do it to her. She also had bruising on her ankles, from what I can only guess is from her being violently held when putting the diaper on her.
Now, when the 'incident' happened of Gretchen 'tuning up' Emily with the baton, the Department of Children's Services opened a case against us, or leastways an investigation as to IF Adriana was safe with us. The results of that case are a HUGE part of why the States Attorneys office is dis-inclined to file charges, as the overwhelming result from this is "We're investigating the wrong mother." This investigation spanned 4 counties, and 4 different investigators, and every single one stated the best place for Adriana is with us. So much so, that the Lead Investigator has stated she will testify in court, both here and in Tennessee on our behalf as to the absolute inability for Emily to be a mother.
There is a few other things we discovered.
One of which during the initial hearing, Emily's on-the-spot urinalysis came back with trace elements of Marijuana and PCP. The Judge however said, essentially "Nah... it's only trace elements, so we'll call that a negative."
Say What?
Yeah. THIS is the 'stuff' we're facing. I was told flat-out by the Guardian Ad Litem that we need a lawyer, hence why I'm here. I normally NEVER do things like this, but I've already sold what I can sell, and am having trouble with getting equity out of the house (blame the subprime mortgage disaster on this one here... too many banks and too many things to track down in a timely manner to get what I need), and I'm still coming up short. I need $7500+ to make sure I can do what needs to be done. If I get more, it'll be a pad to make sure we settle this once and for all.
Adriana, to them, is a 'prize'... a toy to be won, and once won, will be discarded and/or ignored, if not mistreated and/or hurt/killed during one of her BabyDaddys incomprehensible ragefests. In fact, case in point, the BabyDaddy sent me a mocking text message talking about how he 'won'... he just doesn't get it. This isn't a game. There are no winners.
To us, she's a precious and precocious lil goober who makes me smile, and that I love to love.
Gretchen is brokenhearted at this whole thing.
It's been a nightmare that won't end until we get her back to the safety of our family and house.
Please if you can assist Please do so. If you can't afford to donate, then please pray for us... hard.
We need all the help we can get.
Many Thanks
Billy, Gretchen and Adriana
