I am not doing this fast as a fundraiser. But the reality is that we’re being hit hard by legal bills as I fight simply to preserve the time I have with Susanna.

GIFTS: So far we have received over $2000 in gifts. Thank you!

I began this struggle in 2006 without an attorney, believing that my articulate words and my fatherly love would be sufficient to make my case. I could not have been more wrong. By the end of the second hearing (November 2006), my placement time with Susanna was in a shambles.

Since then, I’ve hired an attorney when I could afford one and done without when money was too tight.

Because I’ve been self-employed for the past sixteen months, money has mostly been too tight. I work hard, and I do good work. I am successful at changing lives, but like most people just starting out in self-employment, I am just barely getting by. I will make about $20,000 gross earnings this year (and I pay my health insurance out of that!). It’s a far cry from what I made as a college instructor, but I have no regrets. I’m following a vocation that truly uses my gifts to help heal the world.

And I should be clear: alongside Margaret’s full-time job (and with her blessing and support), I’ve earned enough as a writer and speaker over the past sixteen months to keep us solvent as a household with the bills we have. We live entirely month to month, with nothing to spare. But we budget carefully, live frugally, and we do manage to make ends meet.

But I haven’t earned enough to set aside any money for legal bills.

Since the start of this summer, as things took a decisive turn for the worse on the placement front, Margaret and I have borrowed more than $4000 for legal expenses. I’m sure we’re not through borrowing yet. Thanks to the housing crisis, all the equity in our home has evaporated, so we’ve borrowed against my life insurance and her retirement savings.

Of course, I could quit my vocation and find a day job again. And I may have to do that.

But I know that many who know me via my teaching or writing, through church or Facebook, by my blog or my work, believe strongly in the value of my work as a writer, speaker, and Ally, or in the goodness of my character as a father. And I know that there are many who feel they have been blessed by me … and right now Margaret and I could surely use the blessing of many small gifts.

Such gifts would affirm the goodness of our family and would confirm that my vocation, which leaves us financially vulnerable right now, is valued by many others. We would be humbly grateful for your support.

You can make a donation using your PayPal account or a credit card by clicking on the Donate button below. Donations are not tax deductible. They’re gifts to help us shoulder the costs of our legal bills, and I will be deeply grateful for any gifts that are made, but I can’t offer a tax deduction for them. Still, by using the PayPal system you will know that your gift is made in a very secure fashion and you will receive an automated e-mail receipt confirming it.

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