PLEASE! this is for Gabe... read this, please... i'm so scared.

Okay, everyone... keep your fingers crossed for Gabe.
Gabriel is my 4-year-old baby cousin. His mother, my cousin Liz (which i guess makes Gabe my second cousin or something ::shrugs:: ) is a selfish, irresponsible lowlife and so is her boyfriend David, who though not Gabe's natural father, is the only father figure Gabe has known. The two of them have always had trouble... Neither of them took very good care of Gabe. They fought in front of him constantly, they didn't give him a stable home-life, they didn't pay enough attention to him, and just all around did a bad job (they let the poor kid's teeth all rot out- he hates ice cream because it's "too cold" ).
Now Liz, who has had a history of drug problems, is awaiting trial for doing a stupid, awful, selfish thing... A while ago (it seems like years by now ), a cop pulled her over or something like that... in the car, he found her driving, a friend of hers from Rehab shooting up H in the passenger seat, and HER SON, MY FOUR YEAR OLD COUSIN GABRIEL, in the MOTHER**CKING BACK SEAT.
she was in jail for a while and now she's waiting to be tried, personally i think she deserves jail.
anyway, there's the question of who gets Gabriel, since she was ruled unfit to care for him.
It's come down to Liz's father (my Uncle Brian, the ex-cop and all around great person who has been there for Gabe since the beginning ) versus Gabriel's natural father, whom Gabe has never met (nor indeed heard of ) who lives down in Louisiana.
the plot thickens.
David is now in league with Gabe's Birth-father Doug. He's supporting him in court. Why? Even though any idiot must realize that the best thing for a 4-year-old who's had no sort of stable home life is NOT to go down to butt**ck with some a**hole he's never even heard of, uprooting him, and taking him away from everything and everyone he knows; but to stay with the people who have provided the only stable element in his short existence- the people who love him.
No, David's motives are hardly noble. He knows he has no sort of right to this child (he even tried to legally adopt him once, and Doug was ready to give up all rights to his son ), and if he'll never get to see Gabe again, then Liz shouldn't get to either. He's doing it out of spite. He's a selfish prick who is willing to compromise a child's life to cause his ex-girlfriend pain.

The custody battle started today...

All of us (my family, Uncle Brian, Liz's mother, brother, and sister, etc... ) are scared out of our minds. I keep thinking... what if Uncle Brian doesn't get him? What if Uncle Brian doesn't get Gabe?
And i know the answer to that question...
We'll never see him again.

Please, please, please everyone cross you fingers or pray or meditate or whatever it is you do...
Please think about what's best for Gabe.
Please, please, please.
Oh please, let the fates be kind.

praying for him, so he gts the stable life he deserves, no kid should go through that kind of s***...please keep us informed

good luck to gabe im sure he'll go to uncle brian

My thoughts are with him and I truly hope everything works out in the end

I sincerly hope that your Uncle Brian does win custody. He definatly sounds the person who would be able to give this child the life that they deserve. It really sickens me to think that pople can treat children like this. They are such precious little angels, how can anybody act like this when they are responsable for a child. I feel guilty when I'm ill and havent got the energy to play with my little 'uns as much as normal. Do these people have no concience. People shooting up infront of kids is disgusting. I really hope that the courts see that there is only one right choice for your you little cousin, and thats your uncle. The poor little angel has had a hard enough start in life without the courts ruining the rest of it. Good luck.

noshingnell has said it all. It seems he has had a hard enough start to his life. I really really hope you uncle wins. stories like that upset me and how someone can be so careless and thoughtless - i cannot understand.

dude and i thought my life was bad.. will be thinking 'bout the kid

wow- best wishes for the right outcome!