I am a father of three of the most amazing children on the planet. I have two biological children and their half-brother,Caspian Dylan, Evangeline Virginia, and their older brother Jeremy Michael. Caspian is now 9 and Evangeline, 7. There half-brother Jeremy is 15.
I met a wonderful woman about 10 years back. She had a four year old little boy, Jeremy. I started watching the boy while his mom went to work during the day, I worked evening as a baked goods delivery guy. Jeremy and I hit it off pretty well I suppose, having the same name helped him accept me. We'd watch movies, rifle through his moms music collection, play around in the yard, play video games, and so on. I had a chance to be a kid again! Eventually I stopped heading home when his mother would return and well...... his brother and sister came to be.
We stayed together for a few years, doing the best we could. She was waitressing and I was working various jobs. We moved a couple times, she eventually started community college, and I ended up heniating a couple discs in my lower back. I went on disability, was going through physical rehabilitation which lasted just about a year. I was stressed, she was stressed, money was tight, I just wasn't happy. I wanted to do more. I wanted the world for my family, but through our struggles we grew apart. Niether of us to blame. We were both young and stubborn, and both of us were changing. Our ideals and values weren't the same, we expected too much from each other, we were hard on each other and problems arose.
Here I am almost six years later, a "Weekend Dad"! We share joint custody, their mother has residential custody and well, I am supposed to have visitation every other weekend, two weeks in the summer, and so on.
We all now live in Arizona, we came from Lockport NY, so the mother of my children could continue her education at Arizona State University. I wish I wouuld have fought to stay in western NY, she could have gone to University of Buffalo. Since moving to AZ, I have ended up homeless twice, had three different jobs, been evicted from an apartment, been ticketed for walking on railroad tracks, have no friends, no family here...... its been nothing but a struggle. I have two states going after me for child support, the mother of my kids keeps changing her phone number without forwarding the new number which makes communication difficult. I have no vehicle of my own, I ride the bus to see the children, I was renting a room or homeless at times so I had no where to bring my children for visitation and on and on. Its been difficult and I've been alone in my struggle.
I want what any man who fathers a child has a right to by nature, and by law! I am not a deadbeat dad but I am poor. There are alot of children out there without one parent or the other, there are people who have babies and leave them behind. I am not one of them! I want for both the benefits to my children and myself to be involved in their lives as much as a father can be and then some. The courts make it difficult, the mother of my children makes it difficult, the economy makes it difficult, lack of financial stability makes it difficult, starting over in a new place makes it difficult........ but I will persist until I succeed at being the best "Weekend Dad" the world has ever seen!
Jeremey S. Hicks
[email protected]
I met a wonderful woman about 10 years back. She had a four year old little boy, Jeremy. I started watching the boy while his mom went to work during the day, I worked evening as a baked goods delivery guy. Jeremy and I hit it off pretty well I suppose, having the same name helped him accept me. We'd watch movies, rifle through his moms music collection, play around in the yard, play video games, and so on. I had a chance to be a kid again! Eventually I stopped heading home when his mother would return and well...... his brother and sister came to be.
We stayed together for a few years, doing the best we could. She was waitressing and I was working various jobs. We moved a couple times, she eventually started community college, and I ended up heniating a couple discs in my lower back. I went on disability, was going through physical rehabilitation which lasted just about a year. I was stressed, she was stressed, money was tight, I just wasn't happy. I wanted to do more. I wanted the world for my family, but through our struggles we grew apart. Niether of us to blame. We were both young and stubborn, and both of us were changing. Our ideals and values weren't the same, we expected too much from each other, we were hard on each other and problems arose.
Here I am almost six years later, a "Weekend Dad"! We share joint custody, their mother has residential custody and well, I am supposed to have visitation every other weekend, two weeks in the summer, and so on.
We all now live in Arizona, we came from Lockport NY, so the mother of my children could continue her education at Arizona State University. I wish I wouuld have fought to stay in western NY, she could have gone to University of Buffalo. Since moving to AZ, I have ended up homeless twice, had three different jobs, been evicted from an apartment, been ticketed for walking on railroad tracks, have no friends, no family here...... its been nothing but a struggle. I have two states going after me for child support, the mother of my kids keeps changing her phone number without forwarding the new number which makes communication difficult. I have no vehicle of my own, I ride the bus to see the children, I was renting a room or homeless at times so I had no where to bring my children for visitation and on and on. Its been difficult and I've been alone in my struggle.
I want what any man who fathers a child has a right to by nature, and by law! I am not a deadbeat dad but I am poor. There are alot of children out there without one parent or the other, there are people who have babies and leave them behind. I am not one of them! I want for both the benefits to my children and myself to be involved in their lives as much as a father can be and then some. The courts make it difficult, the mother of my children makes it difficult, the economy makes it difficult, lack of financial stability makes it difficult, starting over in a new place makes it difficult........ but I will persist until I succeed at being the best "Weekend Dad" the world has ever seen!
Jeremey S. Hicks
[email protected]