Last week Heather Moody was back in court asking Judge Youngblood to compel her husband to provide his schedule in a readable manner so she could be aware of when he was out of town. He has refused to comply with the judge’s order to do this since March. Because of the judge’s first order giving the father temporary custody of the children, Heather moved back to Rockdale and found a job as a nurse to be closer to her children. The judge ruled that she should be able to have the children if her husband is away for more than two days. However, since her husband will not share his work schedule, she has no way of knowing when he is out of town. Phone records indicate that at least one of her children has been with the paternal grandparents half of the month.
This is, of course, the real focus in that the paternal grandparents want the children, as expressed in their filing to become joint managing conservators with their son in the initial pleadings, and since the son travels as a pilot more than half the month, if he gains permanent custody, the grandparents will have the children. Their son’s boast to Heather that “they owned the courthouse and would take the children from her and there was nothing she could do about it” seems to be what they really believe.
At this point, it appears her only hope for judicial justice will be a jury trial in which her peers from Cameron will decide whether or not she is denied custody of her children based on previous testimony that focused on the mere fact that she homeschooled as a reason to take away her rights as a parent. THSC will continue to raise money to help Heather cover the legal costs of regaining her children. Please pray for her and her attorneys and for THSC as we seek to stand strong with this godly, kind, and gentle home school mom.
About Tim Lambert
Heather has just finished her July visitation with her children. Of course , she only saw them evenings and weekends..as she has been forced back into the workforce after being a stay at home mom all the children’s lives.
It has been a month of constant intimidation from the father and his parents, and she is grieving over the things she is seeing in her children…as well as the obvious negative information they are being fed . And now has to send them back , uncertain of anything at this point. Please pray for Heather to have the courage and faith for the fight ahead. The desire of her heart to is have her children restored to her..she never went looking to have her family torn apart to begin with …to lose her home..and to be back working with her kids in the public school system.
The jury trial is set for September 12 and is slated to run up to 8 days if necessary. It would still be the most desirable to have the jurisdiction moved. But this has not been possible ..at least as yet.
Please make this a priority for prayer..again I say this could be any of us..I am far more the offender if their standards are ‘overprotective’…homeschooling…ect.
Imperative that citizens pay attention to family courts. More and more judges are acting out of their own personal, emotional opinions, rather than the facts of the case.
If a family judge doesn’t like you – it doesn’t matter how many witnesses & expert PhD witnesses you bring forth – what the type of abuse is – even sexual abuse evidence can and has been totally ignored.
These judges are so drunk with power & can’t see past their own prejeduces – even when children’s safety & emotional welfare are at risk. The judge will snub the more qualified parent for the abusive one.
Hope more people will start watching what these judges are doing….. it’s pretty darn sick & makes you wonder if those sitting on that bench aren’t just as evil as some of these parents abusing their children.
This case sounds like the typical control freak parents still controlling their grown son & now what to do the same to their grandchildren.
Pretty darn disgusting that a grown man can’t & won’t stand up to his parents for his children’s well being.
Lots of prayers going out… for all in these situations.
Why hasn’t the judge charged the father with contempt of court for NOT turning over court ordered docs?
Evidently, this judge doesn’t mind that we’re all finding out that he’s as dirty as they come.
Why isn’t anyone filing complaints with the bar? Are they?
Also – if it were me, I’d file a motion to compel & if the judge ignored that – appeal it.
Hope these lawyers get in there & really fight for the kids…. surely there’s a motion to compel already filed….. surely.
Then appeal the darn thing.
I can’t believe that contempt was grounds to give the kids back to Heather.
hmmm…. praying for legal counsel to not be shy & fight!
Heather, YOU GO GIRL! Hang in there & know that God is with you…and so is the home school community!
We are the parents of TWO accelerated learners aged 14 & 8. Our son was honored at Texas A&M by Duke TIP, at only age 13 last year! He scored higher than 50% of Jrs & Srs, NATIONALLY, on the SAT in not only one but, TWO out of 3 categories! We learned the extent of his abilities through Duke TIP as we started down our home school journey in 2010. Our daughter tested out of the first grade that same year. Needless to say, we never expected our children to be blessed with such innate learning abilities.
Home schooling our children was never part of “our plan” either. Our plan was called “put them on the school bus”. lol. However, now at age 8, we have decided that our daughter will begin the 4th grade at home this year! I, personally, am looking forward to teaching my child (who is an 8th generation Texan) about her own family’s history in Texas this year too! Yes, you can bet that History class will be a LOT of fun at our house this year!!! ;o)
We are so very thankful for THSC and the ability to home school in Texas. It enables our children to learn at THEIR own pace. In our circumstance, our children will no longer be held back to the state mandated curriculum. We wish that we had known that most home school students are at least one grade level ahead of public school students anyway. It does not matter where your children are in the curriculum “box”. Whether your children are IN the box; or they are out of the top, bottom, or sides of it, they have a greater opportunity for successful and accelerated learning …at home by those that love and care for them most. There are also MANY excellent outside academic classes, clubs, sports and other unique opportunities, like THSC Capitol Days, which are offered to home school children today!
Times have definitely changed. Federal and State funding negatively affect the ability of school districts to teach to each child’s ability. Our child was in the same class with A to C average children. How can one teacher be expected to custom teach to more than 150 kids daily? That is not logical in the real world and it should not take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Given these facts and the state of immorality in our society today when even the President of the United States touts a “BFD” t-shirt on his campaign website… You, my dear lady, have definitely made the correct choice in my very humble opinion! Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it. Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ;o)… You and your family are in our prayers here in Cypress.
We will continue to look for Tim’s latest updates on your case… Peace be with you, Heather.
We should all stop and think a minute about the underlying perspective at work in this case: I mean the perspective of both the law controlling what is happening to Heather and her family, and the perspective of Heather’s opponents. Here is that perspective: because of decisions that made sense before Heather was compelled to respond to a unilateral divorce lawsuit (that is what grounds of “insupportability” means) — because of childcare arrangements her and her husband made under the assumption that they were married for life … now, all of a sudden, those very arrangements are used by Heather’s opponent to interfere with her parental rights.
Do you see how bonkers this is?
Imagine a legal world in which someone else’s decision to unilaterally abrogate a contract with you (unilaterally and without cause other than the person saying s/he doesn’t like the contract any longer) can cause you to have to hire lawyers and perhaps lose a lawsuit where you are accused of doing nothing wrong.
Bonkers? I’d say so.
That is what Heather faces … for … years. And she is powerless to halt the intrusion of the state/government into her parent-child relationship — concerning which she is accused of doing no wrong. The intrusion has zero to do with Heather’s fitness as a parent. The intrusion is because of the decision of someone else who Heather is powerless to control.
THAT is one of the (many) serious defects of our family law system. Legally (thank the Lord, not spiritually) Heather’s life as a parent is now an artifact of a poorly thought out family law system. Her parent-child relationship is ruled by standards that no one other than parents going through divorce can be ruled by. And 95% of what will get talked about is unresolvable differences of opinion about dads versus moms and “the best interest of the child”. Meanwhile, we don’t notice the basic issue of why the state/government is involved in this mess in the first place. Heather did not do her husband wrong – so none of this is material for a lawsuit. This is more than tragic.
It is bonkers.
May God bless Heather richly for enduring the unendurable. And may the citizens of Texas decide to put an end to the tragedy of a legal system that allows people to be sued when there is no basis for suing them other than someone says “I changed my mind.”
Jim Loose
Thank you, Ms. Clark for the update.
Well said, Mr. Loose.
Our family is praying for Heather and her children and contributing to THSC on her behalf. I hope others will pray and contribute whatever they can.
Thank you, THSC, for being there for Texas homeschoolers. We are lifting the THSC staff and volunteers up in prayer as well. Thanks for all you do!
Thank you Mr. Loose for your words.
I am going “bonkers” (as you put it) trying to understand how un-just this is on so many levels. It smacks of how one can get caught in a legal dispute and it is not about right and wrong, but more about how the person with the most money and influence will win [unless one has the benevolent support of organizations like THSC].
I will continue to pray for all. I will also pray for a Godly jury of peers.
How right you are about how decisive the impact of an organization like THSC can be. I have zero doubt that without THSC I would have lost my wonderful daughter.
Regarding how it is that we are having to cope with so much family law system injustice: I think we generally understand the extremely tedious legal history of how we got into the family law mess we have on our hands. And I think there is actually a fair degree of agreement among legal thinkers about what is technically wrong with the system. We have not, however, found the courage or integrity or sense of proportion (or all three) needed to bring the tragedy to an wise end. It would be a great blessing to coming generations if you would add that as a request to your prayers. I believe with all my heart that our nation can fiddle around with competing economic theories till the universe suffers the heat death … and we will never put a dent in our problems unless we take some deep breaths and decide we are going to fix the gaping errors bedeviling our family law system. The family law system is responsible for more American sufferring and wasted taxpayer money than bad economic policy, the war on drugs, and our porous borders combined.
Praying for Heather and her children! Thank you for all your help on this case.
First of my wife and I are in a different situation than Heather Moody – We are grandparents raising our grandson. We made a choice to Home School our grandson because we felt he would be better served and was in his best interest.
To decide custody based on one parent’s decision to home school is wrong.
Keeping Heather and her children in our prayers! Please keep us informed and let us know what we can do to help.
Our prayers are with Heather and the children and even with the courts to do the right thing! If the lawyers advising her have not read up on Narcassistic or Borderline Personality Disorder, I would highly recommend such a course of action so that a thoroughly fitting defense of her in court is made. Understanding mental illness, as well as how it plays out in courts all the time, and understanding how to weed it out and expose it has seemed the best course of action when I’ve read up on this matter after dealing with a family of origin filled with neurotics. God bless! Prayers going up for her and her legal counsel!