Lisa and Amber

If you could see Lisa and Amber today, you would probably not guess the tragedy of their early lives. They seem like normal, spirited teenage girls. That's because they were rescued from their birth mother by their dad, Scott, and stepmother, Terri, with the help of Hope4KidZ. Here is their story.

Lisa told us some of the history she knows about from before all the custody battles began…

Her dad lost his job in the Air Force because her mother bounced a few thousand dollars worth of checks. As a military person, he was considered to be responsible for his dependents, so her bounced checks cost him a dishonorable discharge. Not able to find a job in New Mexico, he went to Indiana seeking a job and a place to call home.

While he was gone, Lisa's mother gave birth to Amber-but she didn't let Scott know until 2 weeks had passed.

In 1994, when Lisa was 5 and Amber 4, their parents divorced. Their dad filed for custody, but the judge, not having evidence of physical abuse, gave their mother custody. Scott moved to an apartment near them, for a while, and they visited him on weekends. But their mother repeatedly did things that caused him to lose his job and he felt forced to return to Indiana where his family lived. Once in Indiana, he began again to try to get custody.

After her parents divorced, the children watched as their mother smoked joints, used cocaine and meth, and drank alcohol. Sometimes she would drop Lisa and Amber at someone's house for "a few minutes" and not return for them for several days. Sometimes she would take them to some guy's place, shut them in the living room with a TV, and spend the night with the guy. And it wasn't always the same guy.

Lisa remembers that their mother threatened them with "the big black belt" if they were ever to talk about their home life with their teachers, principal, counselor, or school nurse. They saw their mother taken away by the police in handcuffs time after time, leaving the girls in the care of their mother's boyfriends.

Lisa and Amber will never forget the time their trailer exploded; a meth lab up in smoke!

Lisa says their dad called every single day. Usually their mother would not let the girls talk to him. Sometimes she made the girls say that they were too busy and didn't want to talk to him.

In March, 1997, Scott and his new wife Terri received a call saying that the girls' mother was going to jail for 6 months and that they needed to get to New Mexico within 72 hours to assume temporary custody-or the girls would go to DFS for 2 years.

Lisa likes to tell about how quickly her Daddy and Terri dropped everything, sacrificed more, and got themselves to New Mexico to pick them up. The part she likes best is that Terri did that without ever having met the girls.

Scott and Terri got to New Mexico within 24 hours, and got a judge to grant them temporary custody because the mother was incarcerated. They stayed in New Mexico until a hearing 2 weeks later, which gave them full temporary custody. Then they returned to Indiana-their home state-WITH the girls.

The girls settled into their new school and family - they instantly had two older sisters. They called Terri "Mom" from the day they met. Lisa and Amber had always wanted a real Mom and Dad, and family who loved and took care of them. They felt secure in their lives for the first time.

When a year had passed and the girls' mother had not followed up on regaining custody after her release from jail, Scott petitioned the Indiana court for permanent custody and got it. Residency in Indiana requires 6 months, so the girls were legal residents of Indiana and theoretically under the jurisdiction of Indiana courts.

In July, 1998, the girls' mother arrived, unannounced, in Indiana to see them. And, like a thief in the night-at her first opportunity--she took Amber and Lisa to New Mexico. Knowing that she had likely broken laws, she contacted the local police department and explained what she had done, probably trying to get the "first word in."

Lisa says that the boyfriend her mother brought with her to Indiana was the one who had improperly touched the girls. She and Amber had never mentioned the touching to their Mom and Dad because of the ominous threat of the Big Black Belt, back in New Mexico.

After pretending for a while that she was moving to Indiana - and having gained a small amount of trust from Mom and Dad, Lisa says their mother drove off to "the store" with them, but took them over the state line. She called Dad to say she wasn't bringing them back and good luck trying to catch her.

The police arrived at their mother's door about the time the girls got to their New Mexico home. Once again, little Lisa and Amber had to watch police handcuff and haul their mother off to jail on an outstanding warrant.

Lisa remembers another time, when she was 6, when the police arrested her mother for shoplifting and possession of drug paraphernalia-right when they were shopping together at WalMart.

On the morning Lisa and Amber were kidnapped from them, Scott and Terri began their tireless work with every organization and agency available, trying to get their daughters back home. Fathers4kids, Dallas Texas, helped Hope4KidZ to get on the right track with researching this interstate jurisdictional case.

Their mother filed for custody in New Mexico, although she had clearly kidnapped them from their father's care in Indiana, where they were legal residents. Still, the burden of proof was on Scott and Terri in Indiana.

Scott's first lawyer let him down by dropping the ball. Different attorneys gave different opinions and it was confusing for everyone involved.

Terri and Scott began to study the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), and quickly learned that a child's custody must be heard in the State where the child is a resident; or was a resident before being illegally removed by a non-custodial parent. They got a new attorney and began again.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS, Writ of Mandamus

Describes the Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), a uniform State law designed to deter interstate parental kidnapping and promote uniform jurisdiction and enforcement provisions in interstate child-custody and visitation cases. The UCCJEA was approved in 1997 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; as of July 2001, 26 States had adopted the law. This Bulletin provides current information about the UCCJEA to legislators in States considering its adoption and to parents and practitioners in States that have already adopted the law. The legal background, underlying rationale, applicability, and jurisdictional provisions of the UCCJEA are discussed.
(NCJ 189181) December 2001, Bulletin, 16 page(s) - Hoff, P.

After almost two years of haggling between the courts, the Indiana Court signed the Order for Scott to retrieve his daughters from New Mexico. Before the ink was dry, Scott and Terri began the long road trip from Indiana to New Mexico.

Still, there was a lot of anxiety for all involved because no one knew what might happen when the Court Order from Indiana was served on the mother in New Mexico. At times, the peace officers will assist in enforcing Judicial Orders. Just as often, they will not become involved, saying, "This is a civil matter." The UCCJEA was written to prevent such interstate jurisdictional issues that often keep children in limbo for years. But sometimes, in interstate jurisdictional child custody issues, judges do not speak to one another to clarify jurisdiction.

On March 10, 2000, when they arrived in New Mexico, court order in hand, it was the weekend and they would be unable to get a peace officer to accompany them until Monday. They were so eager to get the girls out of the mother's grasp that they decided to go ahead without assistance, because they already had the proper legal documentation and right to do so.

When they arrived at the girls' mother's trailer, Amber was playing down the street. She ran to the van and jumped in with her older half-sisters. Scott and Terri went to the door of the trailer and presented the court order and said they were taking the girls. Lisa went and jumped into the van, too. There was some discussion of the girls returning to get some of their belongings, but then the mother grabbed Amber in a headlock. Bethany (her half-sister) and Terri wrestled Amber out of her mother's grip, put her in the van, and headed for the state line as their mother screamed after them that she was calling the police. Terri told her to go ahead and call the police so they could press charges against her for assault on Amber.

Scott and Terri knew that the police could slow them down until Monday when a judge would read their court order from Indiana and have to agree with it. And within New Mexico, where they were, Scott had just as much "right" to them as their mother. But they just wanted to get home. So they headed for the border.

The girls badly needed bathing. Their clothes were filthy, ragged, and ill-fitting. As soon as they crossed from New Mexico into Texas, they stopped to purchase the girls a clean set of clothes and a pair of shoes and went to a hotel. Terri gave both girls a couple of baths and helped them dress in the new clothes. Then they rested before continuing their drive.

They still weren't "home free." After traffic hold-ups and Scott's back going into terrible, body stiffening back spasms that resulted from a prior injury and required a trip to the emergency room, they eventually stopped to rest at the home of Hope4KidZ founder Joanna Wright.

When they arrived in Dallas, Texas, "Aunt Jo" took Lisa shopping for necessities like toothbrushes, socks, shorts, pants, shirts, dresses, and of course, two Barbie Dolls. Lisa was running a fever, but she picked out clothes for herself and chose as many outfits for Amber as she had chosen for herself. It was painfully obvious that Lisa had been Amber's surrogate parent and had protected Amber as well as any little girl her age is able.

After a couple of fine and restful days with Aunt Jo, the rest of the trip home to Indiana was pretty uneventful.

Lisa remembers arriving at home in Indiana. It was not the same house they had visited before. But Mom and Dad had made their room look just the same. And in their room Lisa and Amber were thrilled to find birthday and Christmas gifts for each one missed since they'd last been home.

In February 2006, Hope4KidZ spoke to Lisa, age 16, and Amber, age 15, for the first time in several years. So many good things had happened in their lives!

Lisa remembered the day she went shopping with Aunt Jo. And the day they went out to eat, when Amber asked, "Aunt Jo, can we have eggs?"

Aunt Jo recalls that the look in Amber's eyes was as if she were asking for pure gold. It seems that when they were in New Mexico with their mother, the eggs supplied by Aid for Women with Dependent Children, were for Mother's boyfriends, and the girls were forbidden to eat them.

For as long as girls can now remember, they have wanted Terri to adopt them, to give them the permanent mother they deserve. Their dream has finally come true. They have also changed their names-but do not want those names revealed here-for fear their birth mother would be able to locate them.

They are not embarrassed by what they have been through; quite the opposite, they are extremely proud of their Mom and Dad and appreciate the life they now live - which now includes nieces and nephews to play with. They are so grateful to have their family.

Let's let Lisa tell the rest of the story…

• Dad's back continued to get worse and he had to use a wheelchair since 2003. More recently, on March 24, 2005 Daddy got a permanent back implant (a stimulator) and he came out of the hospital walking!

• We also were able to begin the adoption process.

• On August 3, 2005, Mom had gastric-bypass surgery and she has lost 125 pounds. She is much healthier.

• On March 24, 2006, our house burned down. We were living in hotels for 4 weeks until we could find a place. We found a home and are living in it currently. We changed school districts to a better one.

• On August 25, 2006, the adoption was final and our mother lost ALL rights.

• August 26, 2006, was my 17th birthday. On April 8, 2007, Amber turned 16. She had a blast.

• At the end of May I decided to try out for our school's color-guard team and I made it. Next year is my senior year in high school and that is when I will begin color guard and looking for colleges. It will be Amber's sophomore year in high school. We are both doing well.

• Amber and I both have our first jobs. We also are both taking driver's education this summer. Our step-sister Bethany has two babies now. So we have a niece and a nephew that we love very much. And we love our sisters very much too.

We really want to thank Aunt Jo for everything that she has done and we miss her a lot. We hope to see her this summer. We love you Aunt Jo. Thank you for helping Mom and Dad get us home.
Lisa & Amber

Hope4KidZ hopes the adults in both girls' lives will always keep their needs at the center of their actions.

Mom and Dad continue to pay legal fees from 1998-present.