Well now, this was an interesting thread... and here comes ME.
Unlike the men who were "forced" into being a father I am a woman ROBBED of being a mother. You men who walked away from your children DID do them a favor. Too bad that I didn't have the "brains" to marry a man like you... No, I had to choose a psychotic piece of human excrement that successfully manipulated the laws that were designed to protect the rights of GOOD MEN to use our children like little pawns. And before anyone comes on here with the holier than thou "even crackwhores don't lose custody of their kids so you MUST HAVE done something pretty fucked up" - SPARE ME. Because of the shame/blame game a few generations who have been raised this way remain silent.
Lucky for my girls I have no shame and I will go to my grave SCREAMING until my children are protected and safe and who knows.... maybe even help change the laws that have condemned so many like them before them to death or a life of hell with their abuser cut off from the only family that ever loved OR wanted them.
I am not even human anymore because I can not have my children.
My husband is a gift from heaven as he willingly took on this unbelievable burden and remains by my side fighting for children that he only met for a few scattered hours on a few occasions. Heck, he never met my oldest, the daughter who got so twisted by her abusive piece of human scum sperm donor was the one that set me up, cost me custody of all four. And what does the family court system do when her next youngest sister runs away to MY family for protection BEGGING to see the judge, letters written by her younger two siblings also BEGGING to see the judge to tell him THE TRUTH about what is really going on in their father's home? A NO CONTACT ORDER IS PUT INTO EFFECT THAT VERY DAY... served on my sister as "my alter ego" - so legally whatever papers/punishment is meeted out on her is like it were me.
YUP - That is right here in the United Fucking States of America.
Hire a PI? Hire ANOTHER attorney? File this motion? Serve that order?
OK 400K and over 2 years of FIGHTING WITH MY LAST BREATH to maintain some semblence of custody, then laying down and giving my ex EVERYFUCKINGTHING in a desperate attempt to spare the children more trauma, lied to by lawyers, finding out the kids are being abused then spending the next 5 years battling with everyfuckingresource just to maintain A SEMBLENCE of custody.... what has it got me?
Kids who are failing out, smoking pot, drinking, fucking anyone that gives them the time of day, are violent towards themselves and each other, call/email/chat/text me on a regular basis, "Mami - why don't you come get us? Why can't we live with you? I cry myself to sleep every night dreaming about you Mami! I would rather be dead then live here with this monster..... Please, I don't WANT another birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day, second tuesday of the month without you!!"
So did I want children?
If I answered, "If I could take it back, four innocent souls would not have been forced to endure unbelievable suffering but for MY SELFISHNESS of wanting children to love and nurture."
But that is NOT my answer.
My answer is, "The experiences that mothering THESE PARTICULAR CHILDREN have brought me could never have been imagined in my wildest dreams/nightmares. I am dutibound to see this through. What else in my life is there but to become who I was destined to be because the universe saw fit to give me THESE CHILDREN?!"
I only wish that I had chosen a different man to father them, that is true. I feel though, that my choice in a husband and subsequent father to them NOW will help them not only heal, but far surpass anyone who they could have become if they had not lived through what we are living through."
I have gained the gift of empathy and my children will become stronger and more empathetic human beings because of everything that has happened.
This may seem a small consolation to some, but for me this is TREMENDOUS. I will come out of this better and stronger and my girls will have a HEAD START in life. Life has a very strange way of handing us insanity when we least expect it. My girls will be prepared.
If my husband and I were younger I would have at least 2 more, but my time for that is past and so is his. We will be very happy when we have all 6 of our children with us helping them to see the world for all the beauty and wonder, not totally ignoring what is dark and ugly; but rather, shifting main focus on that which is a gift.