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Mum's tug-of-love. After 2 1/2 years, the heartache is over. |
A PERTH mother's 21/2 years of heartache ended this week.
The 25-year-old woman, who for legal reasons cannot be identified, has
fought for custody of her two sons since her husband forced her to
abandon them while they were living in Kenya.
After four months of battles in the Kenyan courts and at least $50,000
in legal bills, the mother and her sons flew into Perth for a Christmas
Eve reunion.
Family and well-wishers greeted the children before they headed to feast on hamburgers and fries.
"There's no McDonalds in Kenya and the boys had been dying for McDonalds food all this time," their mother said.
Stolen visits were the only chance the woman had to see her children,
now aged seven and six, before she received full custody a few weeks
ago.
She said her husband began hiding the children from her when she tried
to make contact - taking them to a string of hotels and leaving them at
his girlfriend's house to prevent her from "stealing" them.
"I hadn't seen the boys in more than two years and, at first, they
didn't quite know who I was," she said. "I'm still trying to assure
them that everything is going to be OK."
Missing out on being able to watch her children grow has taken its
toll. "I still haven't slept properly in 2 1/2 years," she said, biting
back the tears. "I missed out on seeing their first teeth fall out, on
watching them learn to play the piano and read their first schoolbooks."
The family moved to Nairobi in 1997 after the woman's wealthy, Kenyan-born husband was offered a job in his family's business.
In 1999 the couple decided to separate.
"At first things were amicable," the woman said, "but one night we were
in the car when my husband flipped out completely. He started driving
all over the road and told me the marriage was over and he didn't want
to see me again."
She said she was so scared she jumped out of the car while it was
moving and ran home - only to discover she had been locked out. She
spent the night in a hotel and the next day was presented with an
agreement to sign, giving her husband custody of the children for a
year and saying she had to leave Kenya.
"My husband told me to sign the papers or I would be deported and never
see the children again," she said. "I was only 23, living overseas,
didn't have any money and was living as a dependant on my husband's
visa, I stupidly trusted him."
With the help of Hug-Ur-Kids - a Perth-based support group for
people affected by child abduction - she returned to Kenya in August
after receiving a tip-off that her husband was trying to get Kenyan
citizenship for the children.
"If he took out Kenyan citizenship for the boys, I wouldn't have had
any hope of getting them out of the country," she said. "I still can't
believe we're home. For 2 1/2 years I have carried on working and doing
what I had to do in order to function and now I can finally go forward."
"It's great, but it's a little scary."
SOURCE: Sunday Times Newspaper,
December 30, 2001
By Sandra Peterson
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