So, this week is supposed to be my spring break with the kids. Ironically, my ex’s birthday fell on this week.
This wouldn’t have been an issue, well, it shouldn’t have been an issue. Judge hicks specified for both parents get the children the evening before and the morning after so their special day is not interrupted. Makes sense to me, apparently to my ex it does not, or rather she called my office using an unknown number (because she knows I won’t take her calls) to complain that the judge had setup spring and fall breaks improperly (The judge had not) and that she didn’t even know if she wanted the children for her birthday. She stated it was because she didn’t want to deal with me! Now I find that hilarious because I’ve had no contact with her. I told her to talk to my lawyer and just hung up. What else can you do? Nothing that I know of, nothing sane anyway. I should have known that this was in fact a precursor to a problem for my week. Any time she starts ramping up attempts to contact me trouble is on the way.
The week started out fine, the kids were having fun, I was busy with a huge contract at the office. I took them to hang out with their Grandparents for most of the week while I worked. The kids, especially Sam, spent most of the first part of the week debating if they wanted to go to Mom’s for her birthday. Max in the end said it would be the nice thing to do. I had no feeling about it, but suggested they should make some cards for their Mom. They did. On Wednesday March 20th, 2013 I dropped Max and Sam off at Starbucks where we had agreed to do the exchange. The judge specified that pick ups should be done at our homes, on my birthday I went all the way over to her home for pickup. She never makes it anywhere near our home, I’m not complaining, just observing. I always sit in my car, especially since all of the venomous statements she has made to court. She walks right up to the passenger side of my car and tries to engage me stating you need to confirm with me that you will be picking the kids back up at 8:00 AM on Friday. I try to be polite, a mistake and say I haven’t read the e-mail but that’s fine. She starts barking something else, but Tanasha, my wife, shuts it down. Now if I were smart, which obviously I am not, I would note that the need for engagement is picking back up yet again. I am just done wasting time worrying about it.
Come Friday morning, my wife and I drop my car off at my office at Kyrene and Elliot. We then head North up Kyrene, around 7:50 it becomes pretty obvious with traffic complete halted and a ton of SRP trucks on the side of the road we are not making to the Starbucks on University and Hardy. I text the kids, telling them there is a problem on Kyrene and we will be there ASAP. Traffic takes forever, once we start moving and hit baseline I text the kids again: We will be there in two minutes! Now, I still haven’t received any response from either child. I used to text Christa, but she would rant and mislead the kids. Showing them partial texts or none at all and just “tell them” however she interpreted what I sent. My solution, at least for scheduling was to text the kids and let them know what I was doing and when I would be somewhere. That way they would not be hurt any further by unnecessary disappointment. We pull in and park, wait ten minutes and look across to the Essence Cafe, we hadn’t been able to have breakfast yet so we decided we could wait there for the kids. I text the children we are going to the Essence Cafe. Still no response. Nothing. We eat and now I am getting a bit worried. I text are you guys ok? Nothing. I don’t get anything at all… I’m a bit worried. I call my Father and ask him to call Christa and just check the safety of the children. I tell him that if they are ok that’s all I am concerned about, that I’ll file custodial interference charges later. We head to work, my father calls me back and reports the kids are ok and that she has them at her office. Now, I haven’t gotten a single text this entire time from my children. Either one. I never take their phones from them at my home. The kids have both said they can call or text me she controls the phones, she’s happy to let them have them to rail or yell at me. One of the most interesting observations made about abusers, they teach their children how to abuse the abused. Funny that my kids have no problems sending me texts like the ones below.