Legal Battle for Lincoln's Well-Being

Hello. My name is Chris. I'm the lucky grandfather of this little guy, Lincoln Chase. Lincoln has been with me full-time for 5 years now. Link, as we call him, is autistic and has had some serious hardships in his early life, which resulted in him coming to live with me. I've had legal guardianship of Link and have been responsible for all his care, medical, therapy, and education for 5 years. I've made sure to provide a structured routine and support for him. I myself am a disabled veteran with a lot of free time on my hands, which I've dedicated to all his needs. He has been my savior as much as I've been his.

I'm asking for help today to assist in Lincoln's legal battle. The situation is as follows: Link's parents made some serious mistakes with him—abandonment, drugs in his system, abuse. Child Protective Services got involved, and Link came to live with me. I was given legal guardianship papers, both signed by Mom and Dad. Mom went to prison, and Dad was put on probation. I could share more of the past details, but I'd rather share what has happened recently that has me reaching out to everyone to help this sweet boy.

For years now, I've worked with Lincoln, got him to all his medical appointments. He has epilepsy as well as being highly autistic. I've gotten him to all his speech, OT, and ABA therapy sessions, all of his neurologist appointments. I got him tested and labeled so he could start school and special needs classes. He's been in Hawkins School District for 2 years now, which is an amazing school for special needs children. But all that has been taken from him.

His mom got out of prison in September last year and started working on her life and repairing her relationship with Link. I did all I could to safely facilitate that for Link's benefit, not hers. I know Link needs his real family to be complete one day. But what has happened is beyond that. Mom was allowed to have Link this past holiday break. Instead of worrying about her own relationship and care of Link, she chose to take Link down to his dad and leave him there for 5 days, unsupervised, with a known sexual predator and violent offender. Link came back from the holidays a different boy—regression of development, bed-wetting, self-loathing, lashing out, hostile, breaking toys—behaviors we've never dealt with. Although Link is autistic, he's always been a sweet, loving soul. That is not what's happening now. The signs of abuse and/or neglect are very present, and I started the procedures to make sure it didn't happen again.

I tried limiting the visits with Mom and making sure she wasn't going to take him around Dad again anytime soon. Child Protective Services are involved again, but before they could do anything, Mom showed up at school, revoked my guardianship, took Lincoln, withdrew him from school, and has run off with him and not put him back in any school. She has not taken him to his appointments, and overall living conditions do not support what a boy like Lincoln needs or has had. This little boy's world has been turned upside down with him hardly having any understanding of what's going on. His toys, his clothes, his routine, his school, his care, and well-being are all being ignored for someone's pride and not wanting to be seen as a bad mom, who believes that the dad wouldn't ever do that kind of stuff to her son.

I've talked with many attorneys, and all have said I have an excellent case. I even found a very good one who will cut me a deal on retainer, being a veteran on limited income. They offered the amount of $7,500, about 3 grand cheaper than most. I'm seeking help in paying this retainer and securing official court orders that just can't be verbally revoked for the safety and welfare of Link. I'm not trying to take him from his family, only to put a safety net in place. I'm seeking primary custody of him, with Mom having joint custody and all the normal visitation rights with it. I'm seeking to put the father on supervised visits.

To the strangers that may see this and not know how special our relationship has been between us, I ask you to trust these words and search your heart, and to donate to this cause. Thank you in advance. To the family and friends that know us and know how long a road this has been and how far I've helped Link travel down it, I ask you guys to please do what you can to help us make this goal. The sooner the better. I can at least get the attorney started on the filing and ball rolling if I can hit the $3,500 mark. Then the attorney is willing to let the other 4 grand be paid out over a couple of months.

The funds will be paid directly to the attorney.

Please. I don't know how I'll live without living for Link. I've got nothing better to do with my life than to use it to better his!

Thank you and God bless!