LesAtkins.com

The Battle is Over

It has been a long and arduous time of preparation. I have spent countless hours and sleepless nights creating, updating, and reviewing evidence. I have listened to hours upon hours of recorded phone conversations and then I listened to them again…and again. I have printed and organized hundreds of pages of calendar information and chronological events. After all of the sleepless nights at home and repeated (and expensive) planning sessions with my attorney, my battle for custody of my son has come to an end…and I have won!

I now enjoy physical custody and primary legal custody of my son. He is five years old and he just started kindergarten. According to my previous custody arrangement my boy would be going to live with his mother when he turned six years of age (school age). At this time that the original arrangement was made I thought that this would be an acceptable arrangement considering where he would go to school when at his mother’s house. I learned relatively quickly after our arrangement was a court order that this would not be the case. Various events continued occurring at my son’s mother’s house. Finally, mid-year 2004 brought a disagreement that could not be handled without the court’s oversight and I found myself in a battle for all of my parental rights. My son’s mother was determined to take those rights away from me and appeared confident that she could do so. Unfortunately for her the lifestyle she led and home environment that she provided (that I was not fully aware of) soon became her undoing. Through various means (legally or course) I was able to find out that my ex-wife was the one whose parenting should be in question. We went through depositions and discovery and my pile of evidence became so large that it would not fit in just one bag. After my ex-wife became somewhat aware of the amount of evidence and the types of information that I had against her she became much more willing to come to a settlement agreement with me on my terms. At this point; of course, I was many thousands of dollars in debt with my attorney, but it is worth it to have my son. This is of course a very abridged version of the story as I have spared you all of the sordid details, but hey this is a blog not a novel.

There are many people who have helped to make this possible. I am sure that I will not be able to name everybody here, but I will name a few. I would like to say thank you to my boss and to the company that I work for. You have been extremely patient during all of the times that I have had to be absent on short notice and when my job performance has been found lacking due to this case. You have been generous beyond measure and I am grateful. I would also like to thank my other family members for their help. Thank you for the evidence you have provided, the help with watching the kids during those short-notice times, and your always-welcome and consistently-provided love and moral support. A big thank you is due to Melody and the rest of the staff at “Kidz Retreat”. Your part in this has been essential. Thank you. To my friend Wolven I send a very heartfelt thank you. You have been here to help in every way you could at at every request. You have helped with organizing evidence, listening to recordings, working on my house, helping me move things and everything else I could ask of you. You are the best of friends. Thank you.

Last but not least, I want to thank my wife. I cannot fully express my everlasting gratitude for my most fabulous and inspiring wife. She has been the driving force behind this case. When I was overwhelmed or just plain stupid about what I needed to do next; she was there to get me back in line. When it was time to organize our notes and evidence it was her fantastic organizational skills and determined attention that pushed us through those difficult all-nighters when working on our notes. With her at my side helping me and often times directing me I was an unstoppable machine of evidence organization. When I presented a copy of the 5″ binder of information to my attorney he gawked (and so did his legal staff) and he told me that he was considering hiring my wife as a paralegal. She would be a benefit to his practice without a doubt. She has supported me in every way that I have needed. She has helped me to remain focused on what we were trying to do and all the while she has been the object of my opposition’s attacks. My wife has remained with me during all of these very difficult times and has continued to show her dedication to me and to this case. I fear that I will not ever be able to do for my wife what she has done for me, but I will spend my life trying. She is truly the most wonderful wife and partner that a man can have and I thank God for her.

I am overjoyed that my son will be with me all of the time. I am excited that he will now have the consistent time with this family that he needs. We all love him very much and are looking forward to tomorrow as we get past this part of our lives and move on to the best part which is yet to come. I have spent the better part of two years fighting. I am now ready to spend the rest of my time spending time with and loving my family.

I am sure that I will remember more people to thank and more info to give you so I do not consider this blog closed. It is late and that is all I can say for now.

Thank you for reading.