Help bring Morgan’s kids home safely

Hi, my name is Morgan. I am the mother to 3 amazing kids - Ken (7), Mae (4), and Kody (2). I have created this fundraiser to help bring them back home safely.

Here is our story…

(but first a little back story) The children have lived with me during the week and go to visit their dad on weekends ever since my ex-husband and I divorced in September 2021. Our custody agreement through our divorce was vague - the judge did not include any specific time frames allotted for his visitation with them Friday-Sunday and no child support case opened. Since then, he has taken the children more than 5 times and withheld them from me for days, sometimes 3+ weeks for reasons that are absolutely ludicrous (ie. doesn’t like the daycare I chose for them, doesn’t want our oldest child in school, upset about my parents and I taking them trick or treating, angry that the kids met my partner, etc). He has unenrolled them from their schools on multiple occasions, limited my communication with them and used them as pawns to be vindictive towards me. Each time these scenarios are rectified either via going to court or by me compromising with him. This time is much different though…

On Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 my kids were outside playing with a bunch of kiddos from the neighborhood. This was a usual occurrence after homework was completed but before dinner and bedtime. I tell the kids to come back inside for dinner and they gladly come in because they had built up some huge appetites after running around our neighborhood, riding bikes and doing all the fun afterschool kid stuff you can think about. The kids were so exhausted that evening that they had each become cranky so I figured they should just go to bed right after dinner, they had no problem with that and slept peacefully all night.

The next morning, Thursday, November 9th, I woke the kids up a bit earlier than normal so that they could shower and get ready for school since they didn’t bathe the night before. As I was helping them wash up I noticed a linear bruise on Kody’s behind. This wasn’t out of the ordinary as my kids, like most kids, are pretty rough and rowdy and come home after playing outside with all kinds of bumps, bruises, scrapes and other various owies. I asked Kody “what happened to your butt” and he replied “Ken did it”. Ken immediately became defensive at shouted “No I didn’t! He’s lying”. I ignored the commotion between the two of them since their little bouts of bickering happen often and pressed on the mark while asking Kody if it hurt. He said no, so I went about the rest of their bathtime talking about our plans for the remainder of the morning and the thought of the bruise and where it originated from dwindled - there were more pressing matters to attend to like preparing lunches, doing Mae’s hair and getting them to school on time.

At 7:14am I received a text message from one of our neighbors - the mother of one of Ken’s classmates, with whom all my kids play with on a daily basis. She sent a text and photo explaining that the evening before, Kody had thrown a cup at her son’s eye and that it had bursted a blood vessel. She explained to me that he was fine but that she wanted me to be aware of the situation - I apologized and assured her I would have a conversation with Kody to rectify that behavior. And to let me know if I could do anything to help her son. After dropping Ken and Mae off at school, I talked with Kody one on one about violence, good behavior vs bad behavior and explained how upset and disappointed I was that he hurt another child (who is much older than him - 10 or 11 years old, so Kody must have thrown the cup pretty hard in order to cause that injury). We went on with the rest of our day after that. Kody went to the gym with my boyfriend Jalen and I and towards the end of our session we usually have Kody do a few tiny tot “workouts” to get his energy out and help him feel included in our grownup workout. After this Jalen reiterated to Kody that throwing things at other children is unacceptable and that he will have privileges taken away for behavior like that. That was the last time either of us commented on the situation. Thursday and Friday were regular days, without anything noteworthy that happened. Jalen and I took the kids to Arundel Mills mall after school in order to meet with their dad for their usual drop off to spend the weekend with him. I hugged and kissed the kiddos tight, told them to have a wonderful weekend and let them know that I’d call them before bed that night. That was the last time I saw them.

A few hours later I received a call from their father. He commented on the mark on Kody’s behind (he still puts him in diapers even though he is fully potty trained) and asked if I knew what happened. I told him everything - that Kody said Ken did it, Ken said he didn’t do it, Kody hit our neighbor with a cup and that he may have retaliated, or that they might have playing roughly outside - and that I had no real conclusion on what happened. He said okay and we hung up.

Sunday evening rolled around without our usual text communication stating what time we’d meet and the pickup location so I sent him a message asking if 6pm or 8pm would work better for him. He replied with “Blessed afternoon. I’m going to be off tomorrow Lords Willing, so I’m going to keep the kids for an extra day.

I’ll call the schools to make them aware. Thank you!”. I knew with this response that there would be another stint of him keeping the kids for extra days/possibly weeks. I combatted it with two long text messages to which he replied that he would be keeping them regardless of what I said.

I called both Ken and Mae’s schools the following morning (Monday November 13th) to alert them to the situation and to prepare them that the children would likely not show up at school until they were back in my care. That afternoon I sent another text asking what time he would be available for me to pick them up. **The next message I received from him was NINE days later (Wednesday November 22nd)**.

While I was at the gym that evening (Mon Nov 13th) I received a phone call from my mother asking if I could come home and that CPS was there to talk to me. I immediately stopped my workout and drove home. A case worker was sitting at the dining room table with my mom when I arrived. She went over the details of what their father had told her, I explained what happened and then she put a safety plan in front of me. She stated that when asked about the bruise, Kody said “Jalen was mad at me”. I explained to her that he also said his brother did it and that he’d had an incident with a neighborhood kid and that my partner would absolutely never physically punish any of my kids. That didn’t matter and she set the safety plan in front of me further. I’ve never dealt with CPS and wasn’t aware of what a safety plan was so I asked her to explain. She told me that based off of the accusations, I would not be allowed to have any unsupervised contact with the kids until their investigation concluded and that their father would keep them for the duration of that time. She asked me if I was comfortable signing it and I said absolutely not. I’m not okay with that. I asked her if I had to, and she replied “you don’t have to, but if you don’t then you look more suspicious and our investigation will take longer. It will take longer for the kids to come back”. So I reluctantly signed the safety plan, asked her a few more questions and then immediately called my boyfriend. I was shocked, confused, angry and deeply saddened. Now that I’ve done more research and spoken to attorneys who are familiar with CPS and how they conduct business - my mother should’ve never let her in without a warrant, I should’ve never spoken to her without a lawyer, and certainly should not have signed the safety plan after being coerced into it. Hopefully this information can help someone else!

Between that day and today (December 4th) there have been a few noteworthy moments that have occurred. I’ve filed for an amended custody agreement, filed for an emergency custody hearing, and requested a supervised visit so that I could at least be with my kids in person even if only for a short amount of time. The custody amendment is pending trial, emergency custody was denied (the judge essentially said that if the kids aren’t in life threatening harm while in his care, they won’t grant emergency custody to me), and my visit with the children ended with Mae being shoved back in the car by her father, as she was coming towards me for a hug - his father coming out of a second car and becoming physically aggressive with both Jalen and I - and I wound up calling the police because of the whole ordeal. It was incredibly traumatic for me, and I can only imagine how my precious babies felt when I was within 10 feet of them, ready for reuniting hugs and kisses, just to be pushed back into a car, not restrained in car seats/seatbelts while their father swerved and sped off.

It has been almost an entire month since I have seen my babies and I am a wreck - but I do know that I will continue to fight for them and their safety with everything in me. The repercussions of this nightmare will be felt for the foreseeable future. My legal fees far exceed what I have in savings, and I am sure that there will be long term impacts to my childrens’ emotional wellbeing and mental health as a result of being removed from me, but the full impact remains to be seen. At the tender ages of two, four and seven they were needlessly removed from their mother as a result of an inept CPS caseworker and spiteful, vengeful, and manipulative ex-husband.

As a parent we all know how energetic and clumsy toddlers can be. And how if we don’t witness an accident first hand we may never fully know what occurred. To falsely accuse someone of child abuse and strip children from their comforting, secure and nurturing home is traumatic for everyone involved. Thank you for reading and even if donation is not possible for you, a simple share goes a long way! Thank you all.

Morgan