In 2025, A hearing was held for a petition I filed to modify the parent- child relationship. This was initiated as a result of my ex spouse threatening to take court action regarding custody and visitation therefore I decided to be the initial filing party to outline the issues, concerns, and what I'm asking the court. This frames the judge's initial perspective rather than constantly playing defense against false accusations and smear campaigning which is common when the other parent is a narcissist. His remark to file a case and I'd like to note while there was already an existing custody order and while he had decided to not have any contact with our child for several years , was stemming from his desire to retaliate against me again (as this was not the first time I've been threatened for the same thing) for attempting with the Veteran Affairs to obtain the portion of his military benefits that he receives for our child while also pursuing the courts in filing a motion for show cause due to him being 5 digits in arrears of child support. My ex spouse although served at this child support hearing out of state by a process server I hired, he did not appear so I proceeded to handle the case alone.

NOTE: Identifying information and sensitive details have been edited for publication.

Here is a snippet of what was presented to the judge:

DOCKET CALL:

I am the Petitioner

I am representing myself.

I am ready to proceed with the hearing.

OPENING STATEMENT:

Your Honor, I am are here today for a petition to modify the parent child relationship. I filed it on October 30, 2024. We have a long history here of my ex husband not following the order in our Divorce Degree regarding our child which is why I am bringing it to this level. I have attempted to discuss it with him a few times and was met with either no response or conflict in response and that's what I'm here for.

Today, your honor I'm going to show you what's going on in this case. I have a slew of violations of the order to include text messages of Mr. not following the order and not exercising his in person visitation in the past 4-6 years, but threatening litigation, inconsistent phone call/video communication, refusing to participate or show concern in our autistic son's medical care and refusing to provide the court ordered percentage of medical expenses for him name calling myself, making false accusations, and blocking communications with myself and our child, and conflict.

I have attempted on multiple occasions to take the initiative to rectify our coparenting relationship and I have evidence of this today.

Because of these issues your honor, this is really impacting our child and I am asking for today in the best interest of our child Sole Managing Conservatorship with a Supervised Possession Order for Mr. with a professional supervision service in Texas, paid for by Mr. with a 48 hour notice of intent to see our child, Reunification Therapy, parenting course, and all further communications to be in Our Family Wizard or similar coparenting app.

TESTIMONY:

Your honor, I am asking the Court to change the current order for our child. The title of the current order is Final Decree of Divorce. The date the current order was signed by the Circuit Court. Its been 7 years since the original custody and parenting plan was entered. When the order was finalized, due to Mr. living out of state prior to and at the time of the final order along with his inconsistency with parenting time and our child's age, a previous domestic violence I encountered with Mr. and threats as well as a restraining order from his current estranged wife, the judge ordered reasonable and liberal physical parenting time with our child limited to the clubhouse at my apartment complex, or other places in the area that either I designated or that was mutually agreed upon. 

Since this order was finalized, there has been a substantial change in circumstances such as our child becoming special needs, and his father not seeing him but only 2x in the past 6 years.

He is our special needs child whom was formally diagnosed in 2019 at the Autism Center.

Your honor I wish to identify the documents as Exhibit 4.

I am showing you what's been marked as Exhibit 4.

This is a psychological evaluation that licensed psychologist 2019.

Your Honor I wish to offer Exhibit 4 into evidence.

Our child was identified as a child with autism spectrum disorder at the age of 2 years and 9 months. There was a concern for his cognitive development, language development, and social/ emotional development. He encountered a delay in several milestones for a child of his age. After the evaluation, he started the autism center

The non custodial parent's last time he had physical contact with our son was on November 24, 2020 and prior to that it was September 30, 2018.

Your honor I wish to identify the text messages in Exhibit 1.

I am showing you what's been marked as Exhibit 1.

These are text messages between myself and Mr.

Exhibit 1, page 1

On October 1, 2018 I sent Mr. a letter in the mail via certified mail to both of his last known addresses at that time letting him know about our son and I's relocation after my discharge from the military and for him to reach out and let me know what he would like to do about visitation.

I sent a text message to him regarding this which is shown in Exhibit 1 on page 1. I was due to be honorable discharged from the military and relocated to another state.

Exhibit 1, page 1

On October 4, 2018 I received a text from Mr. that stated he will not be seeing our child that weekend. I replied back.

Exhibit 1, page 1

On October 7, 2018 I sent him a picture of our son to which he did not acknowledge it. On November 9, 2018 we relocated to and I sent him a text with our updated apartment number because it had to be changed upon arrival due to our original unit not being ready. He did not acknowledge this text either. I initiated a Facetime call on January 21, 2019 and was met with no response in an attempt to continue our son's virtual visitation. On February 8, 2019 I had to relocate to another apartment complex within the same leasing company due to some issues that were surrounding in the neighborhood. I was met with no response.

Exhibit 1, page 2

On June 27, 2019 I texted him about our child's medical diagnosis, no response.

Exhibit 1, page 2

August 20, 2019 I texted him about our child's medical expenses, no response.

I also texted his mother and father letting them know about being blocked and

Exhibit 1, page 2 He replied to my text stating that he told me to not get his parents involved in my personal issues that don't pertain to them physically seeing or telephonic communications with our son and they don't want any involvement in it. He also mentioned not being thrown random number with no knowledge of what our son needs with no documentation and he will not be sending me payment if its not court recognized so he told me he would see me in court and we'll clash it out. He told me that he do not nor will he contact me via phone unless communications are court monitored and accused me of having a history of false accusations which are untrue since I have screenshot proof and evidence for any of my claims in dealing with him.

Exhibit 1, page 3

I let Mr. know that his message contained nothing about scheduling to see our son and no followups about his diagnosis. I also told him that on June 30 at 8:10 pm his father stated that if I need anything do not hesitate to ask and his father had asked me to keep him updated on his grandson. His mother had also inquired on our sons care abut his diagnosis and stated she would call me but didnt. There appeared to be a miscommunication and I let him know that I wouldn't reach out to them again.

Exhibit 1, page 3 I texted him documentation of the cost of our sons medical care and an email from the facility and told him that he was welcome to make the payment directly to them and that it was already outlined in our divorce decree the percentage that he is supposed to pay.

He did not respond.

Exhibit 1, page 4,

On our child's birthday I sent him a picture of our child, and he did not respond. Instead an email was sent to me by him to tell our child to enjoy his day and that he only wanted to talk via email. It wasn't in our order to communicate via email and at that time I did not check my emails often.

Exhibit 1, page 5

July 27, 2020

I sent him a text that stated our child's birthday is 2 months away and that it had been 2 years since he talked or seen him in person. I gave him updates on our child.

He then responded and asked how I was doing and admitted to it being some time since we last talked.

Exhibit 1, page 6

The conversation continued and I asked when he was coming to see our child and he mentioned that it being supervised was an issue and limiting.

At that time I told him about our sons needs and that the supervision is helpful and asked if he could facetime. He expressed that he didn't mind facetime with him he just felt uncomfortable with me holding the phone. He asked if our son could hold the phone by himself and I said he couldn't it is a sensory overload for him, He asked about facetiming him that week and giving a heads up. We didn't hear back from him.

Exhibit 1 page 6 August 27, 2020

I sent a text asking if his address was the same for court documents and he stated that it wasn't. He asked what needed to be sent and I told him documents for child support and he asked if our son would be available for a video call that day or the next . He had a call then texted the next day to postpone the next call.

September 9, 2020 

He had visit that following Friday via phone. September 11, September 21, 2020 on our child's birthday.

Exhibit 1 page 7

On November 5, 2020 I let him know our son had asked for him and he spoke to him that day.

Exhibit 1, page 8

I texted Mr. and let him know that we were going to be in Virginia due to a child support hearing and our son had asked to see him. Arrangements were made for this to happen and we met at a kids place on November 23, 2020. He spent an hour with him before leaving. I took pictures of them and we left and drove back home.

Exhibit 1 page 10

On November 24, 2020

I let him know that there was court the prior morning and they issued a failure to appear due to his absence and I didn't mention it because I did not want to cause conflict or affect our sons visit with him.

He blamed me for missing the court date and after that I did not hear anything further.

Exhibit 1 page 1

I sent a text message about our son asking about him and asked when he would be coming to visit. No response.

Exhibit 1 page 12

My text messages sent through green from November 24, 2020 and I would only attempt to reach out and continue conversation and virtual visits with our son on December 6, 2020

March 30, 2021, July 22, 2021, August 19, 2021, and April 9, 2022,. Since November 24, 2022 my texts stop going through blue and went through green which was an indicator of being blocked again.

In the best interest of our son and due to the amount of resources Texas provides for children with autism and a new job opportunity

Due to the fact of not having a current address and the certified letters be returned in April 2022 I sent a text message from my new phone number and let the father know that we relocated to Texas permanently as our last home to stay at. He didn't respond but I continued to keep him updated on May 10, 2022 and July 17, 2022. We relocated here and I filed a foreign judgement 6 months after residency and myself and the father appeared, he had no objections and here we are.

I did not hear from Mr. until one day I got a text message on February 12, 2024 from a different phone number that he identified as himself.

Exhibit 1 page 12

I received a text message from Mr. indicating his new number. He asked to speak with me on the phone and promised it had nothing to do with our upcoming child support court.

(See next blog post for continuation)