*SingleMomTryingToSaveFamily

My name is Jennifer. I am a single mother of 5 with another baby on the way. I recently became separated in September. My oldest daughter is from an absent father, my middle three are from my first husband who passed away in September 2016. And my youngest and the baby boy I have on the way are from my second husband who I separated from. Right before my separation occurred my life took a 180. What I thought was the perfect marriage turned into a nightmare. My ex started trying to control me, tell me what I better do or better not do, tracking my location, tracking my activity on social media, started stalking me when I wouldn't answer his text or phone calls. I would try to avoid arguments and he would try and keep me from leaving the room. If I didn't look at him when he was trying to talk to me he would grab my face and tell me to look at him. He would stand over me when I was trying to sleep and call me names. One night in the middle of an argument he grabbed me in a sexual way in front of our two year old and when I told him to stop he laughed in my face. Another night he made the comment that if I didn't have sex with him he would leave me with our daughter. He treated my oldest three children so badly that they have grown to hate him. He would constantly tell my boys that they were going to grow up and be like their dad, a piece of crap, in and out of jail and never amount to anything. His words, not mine. Keep in mind their father is deceased. Right before we separated he told me that he contacted our landlord at the time and told them I forged his signature on the lease and he was trying to have me and my oldest four kicked out on the street with nowhere to go. I couldn't take the  abuse any longer so I went and had an ex parte taken out on him. On the same day he tried to take an emergency custody order out against me to take our daughter. His was denied, and I was granted a temporary ex parte. Unfortunately I have no family, both parents have passed away, and I'm an only child. Me and my kids moved four hours away from where we were born and raised to be with him. Leaving what friends I had behind. I lost contact with most because I cut off everyone in my past because of him. He constantly rubbed it in my face how I had no one. He had his family help him financially get a family lawyer to take me to custody court. At the court hearing they denied me a continuance because his attorney brought up that I couldn't afford one and that I had no one to help me get one so a continuance wouldn't do any good. I was left to represent myself. They dropped the ex parte order and granted us joint custody. Week on and a week off. In our order it states that we are not to discuss anything other than our daughter, or separation/divorce. DSS got involved because while filing for my ex parte I reported how he tracked me down through my phones location and had our daughter with him in his work truck, no car seat, driving recklessly. I have been completely upfront with the social worker since day 1. I have told them about his drug use, smoking weed for hours at a time in the garage, not taking care of our daughter and when he finally came back inside he still didn't want to watch her. If I went anywhere she always had to go with me because he didn't want to watch her. If I did go alone he would make my 17 ( 16 at the time ) year old daughter watch her. I was honest about my drug use IN THE PAST. When he left the home he took all of our money. I was left with all the bills by myself. Rent, utilities, car payment, car insurance, grocery bill for 6 people, fuel to get to and from work. I do not receive any type of assistance or financial support from anyone or any of the absent/deceased dad's. I work full time and have a set schedule that I work everyday during the week. My job was a 30-40 min commute one way and I had to leave before my kids had/could be at school. They started having issues getting to school due to transportation and bus stop issues. I didn't have any neighbors or friends I could reach out to for help. ( I kept in touch with the school about this situation) I knew we had to move to be able to survive. Well because of the amount of school they were missing the schools reached out to DSS. I've also had a few health issues , which being pregnant is to be expected at times. I have tried to be civil with my ex to keep peace and be able to co parent, but if I don't treat him the way he wants to be treated he is constantly trying to threaten me with having my kids taken from me. Even though our court order says no communication unless it about our daughter it's not good enough for him.  He mentally tortures me still. He is telling DSS things and showing pictures of stuff trying to set me up and make me look like a bad mother. But the things he has aren't even against me. They are my daughters boyfriend who he is disturbingly jealous of. I have had multiple home visits with DSS, been compliant, had to take random drug test, which I pass every single time because I'm not using. He has had ONE home visit and not one single drug test even though they have been told by multiple people he uses. Now tomorrow DSS is having an emergency meeting to have my children removed from my home , and he violated our court order on Friday and refused to let me get our daughter, he says the DSS worker told him that if he let me get her they would remove her from the home. The DSS worker refuses to answer any of my messages to confirm if this is true. Regardless DSS does not overturn a court order. Police were called, but because it's civil they couldn't do anything but file a report. He still has our daughter and will not let me get her. He is trying to have my world taken from me. My kids are my life and he is trying to take them from me. Right here at Christmas at that.He plays innocent and says it's not what he wants, but it's all because of the things he is saying and doing that this is even happening. All of this because of the ex parte I took out on him and my daughter's boyfriend. I have come to realize that I cannot fight this battle without an attorney. I'm putting my pride aside and doing something I have NEVER done. I'm asking for help. Being a single mom and the price of family law attorneys I cannot do this by myself. I need help and I need it fast. I'm hoping to meet with an attorney tomorrow and I have no clue how much it's going to be, but I know it's going to be expensive. But these are my babies I'm fighting for. I'm just putting a starting price of $4,000. Because again I have no clue. My ex's was around $7000 and I've had other people who have needed family law attorneys tell me $5000 up to $15,000. I have pretty much raised my babies on my own their entire life and to know that I could have it all taken away from me over someone being spiteful is killing me. Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I'm the furthest thing from a bad mother. So here I am asking for your help. Help me save my family. Anything will help. Thank you and God bless.