A letter to the girl's counselor

Dear Sylvia,

The girl's dad, Roy, texted Stacie yesterday and demanded that the girls come spend the the night with him when he gets home from work--otherwise he would take her back to court. He then called the house phone and left 2 messages....both of which she plans to record once we get a tape recorder that works...which we will do tomorrow.

One message says that he won't pay 700.00 child support and not have his kids on the weekend. The other one uses the 'f' word a lot. The girls haven't spent the night with him in several months. He has only asked for them 1 weekend back in September, which Stacie told him they already had plans. Ana had a birthday party to attend...hers...which we had already made plans for prior to her dad calling.

Both girls say they don't want to spend the night with dad because of the python his step sons have, because they only eat fast food and cereal, and dad and his wife are seldom around. They are either shut up in the bedroom or off shopping or visiting friends and the girls are left with the two boys, ages 14 and 8 or 10, I don't remember; and an elderly grandma who stays in the bed and argues with daddy constantly when she gets does up.

The divorce papers state day visitation, no overnights. Later on, during all the youth court appearances we made when I would have temp custody of them, there was a new ruling stating that Roy had to have supervised visitation with them because at the time he was not married, and he didn't have a stable home for them to visit in. These visits were to be held at the greenhouses in mine and Terry's presence. I know they are back in Stacie's custody, so don't have a clue if that ruling is still binding--it came from DHS/Children's division.

What I need to know and figure that hopefully you could ask Conrad (lawyer and youth court judge) or arrange for me and/or Stacie to speak with him concerning our legal rights concerning all this before I spout off something to dear dad and am wrong.
As I said earlier, both girls don't want to spend the night with dad. They love their dad, but I know Ana is scared of him because she has told me so.

What upsets Stacie and the girls is to come home and Stacie turn on the answering machine and hear all these threats filled with curse words from their dad to their mom. He pulls this every so often and has even pulled it on me at which time I told him to go ahead and make my day. I'd love nothing better than to face off with him in a courtroom with a judge. But Stacie has deep seated fears that some way, some how, Roy will manage to take the girls from her, either by some fluke or because her house isn't spic and span clean.

I worry, because the girls are doing well, they don't need all this upset in their life, so I just need to know what legal options we have. I really hate to bother you with this right here at Christmas.

Also, while I'm writing, we need to seriously take a close look at Shandi. I don't know if the child is depressed, or if her kidney situation is truly causing her to feel unwell. After doing the VGUG and renal test, the doc found an abnormality and is referring her to the specialist in Jackson. We haven't heard from them to set up an appointment yet. She often has crying spells, and always, almost daily by evening complains of simply feeling bad. As I was telling you at our last session, even Dr. Charles noted that Shandi was not like herself on our last visit to him.

We do have a letter from the school informing us they are observing Shandi in Tier 11 as a child in danger of failing and if necessary will move her to Tier 111 (yet again) and write her up an IEP. I'll bring a copy of that when we come for our session on the 2nd.