Quick background: Married young, met my first husband at 17. Spent 11 years in an extremely abusive marriage in a time when the police couldnt arrest the abuser unless caught in the act. Textbook abuser I guess, I was isolated, degraded, and 18 miles away from anyone hearing my screams. I fought back at first, not understanding the volatile relationship I was in. The beatings got worse, to the point I thought I would surely die "this time". Then something inside me snapped when he turned on our youngest child and only daughter, picking her up and shaking her violently when she touched something of his. I found a way to leave. I was done.

He retaliated by kidnapping the children while I was at work and living in hiding from him, then getting a divorce on the grounds of abandonment without my knowledge. I didnt know where my children were for 3 long, painful years.