Family Sticks Together ~ Elisha

I love my children more than anything in the world. But the world and its flawed systems have taken them away from me. My spirit cannot rest until I can be united with my children and finally have some peace and justice in my life.

Although I feel completely alone and alienated in this fight, I know I'm not alone. Families all across this country are being torn apart by broken court systems along with other systems that take children away from their loving, caring and natural parents. My story is not much different from those of other fathers who have unjustly lost their rights. My case is not special. My children are the ones who are special and deserving of the chance to be a family again.

Life was truly great raising my children and we were happy until the courts stepped in and changed all of our lives. My children should not have to suffer everyday because of a terrible decision made by a faulty court system. I have been trying for their sake to work hard and save up, but without my family, things don't seem to go right. After wave after wave of financial setbacks and unexpected events in my life, I feel I should explore every and any possible way to get my children back. They deserve every effort I or anyone makes towards getting them out of the foster care system and back together with family.

I've done and will keep doing all that I can do, but I recognize when I need to put my ego aside and do all I can to just get my children out of their situation, even if that means asking for help. I'm asking God, the universe, the entire world and anyone who can afford it to please help my children be reunited with me, their biological father. All funds will go towards getting my children back. This includes owning a safe and stable home for me and my four children and also towards developing my company to be mobile and capable of generating a more substantial and sustainable amount of income to better support my children.

This fight and this agonizing battle began years ago. In 2008, I was truly blessed with four beautiful and amazing children. Raising my four babies and spending time with them will always be the most cherished times of my life. Laughing, playing, growing and learning with them, we all were so happy to be together as a family. I never could have guessed my time with my children would be taken so quickly from me and for so long.

One day my life was suddenly thrown into turmoil. My marriage, my family and everyone I loved turned against me, kicked me out to live on the streets and even physically beat me over wildly inaccurate claims that were simply untrue and unjustified. It was, and still is an unbelievably frustrating nightmare.

It was a lengthy court battle and I was deceived into "temporary foster care" (which I later found out does not exist), being told it would only be for 3 to 6 months when in reality the foster care was permanent and it has now been 8 years. I felt like my children were stolen from me. I knew my children wanted to be together so I made requests for them to be placed together with one family but in the end they all got split up and are now being passed through many different homes in the foster care system.

I just know they are not happy being separated from each other and separated from their father. With each day away from my children, my sense of urgency to rescue them grows. I don't want them growing up not knowing who their real father is and how much I love them. They need that love.

I don't want them to forget that I raised them and loved them dearly everyday. I don't want them to forget where they came from or who they are. One foster family even changed my daughter's first name and put her on strong mood altering medication. Not being able to care for my children has been devastating for me. But at the same time, it also makes me even more committed to fulfilling my role as their father. I know my children need me and I need my children, and that God will help me find a way to get them back.

Everything I do and every company or endeavor I've created is ultimately for my children. I hope to create websites and companies that I can pass down to my children as a source of income for them. I currently run an independent company, creating websites and systems to help people and other companies. Being independent, I am able to shape my own fate, but there is significant infrastructure that must be continually maintained to deliver my works to the world.

I struggle on undeterred, no breaks, no vacations or rest until I get them back. It is sometimes difficult just to break even and not go backwards. It is a frustrating situation because at the going rate, no matter how hard I try, it will take many many years to save up enough to afford my own home and get my children back. That will be too long and that would be too late by then. It has now been 8 years without my children. My heart, my children and their childhoods cannot wait any longer. Each day that goes by without them breaks my heart and rips apart my soul.

I believe that a father should have God given rights to his children that should not be determined by a system outside of family. Having the court system fail me proved to me how unfair and broken the court systems truly are. I now understand first hand how a broken system causes broken families. I believe that the system should protect families and work to keep families together, not tear them apart like they have with mine.

My fight has been long and arduous but I have faith that through my works, through God and through people who help me along my journey, I will see my children again. When I am reunited with my children, I plan on fully devoting myself to helping unite other families in this world through my testimony, my legal case and by creating websites and blogs that will help unite families. My fight is not just for my family, but for every family struggling to unite. My fight is for all of us.

Rev Elijah Joseph Stutes

Founder of Unite Ohana