CUSTODY Branch 🌿 of HGM 🪴
"Children, honor your father and mother (the first commandment with a promise) so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Ephesians 6:1-3
“A voice is heard, mourning and great weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.” “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD.
“Your children will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the LORD. “Your children will return to their own land.”
Adina: After the divorce I had primary custody of the children. My former husband had them 3 weekends per month. I never thought that 2 years later I would face a custody battle.
As heartbreaking as it was, my Beloved Lord was with me through it all. Although I lost primary custody and became a weekend mom for almost a year and a half, I knew He was using it for good and that it was only a season I had to go through. During the that time I was able to spend so much time with my Beloved Lord, and He used the time to heal me. He also used the time to deepen my relationship with Him and my children. The time I did have with my children were precious and we were able to do things together that we couldn't previously because our time together consisted of getting them to school and back, homework and studying.
My Beloved Lord changed the situation completely, like I knew He would. Now I am Homeschooling my children and see them almost every day; every second weekend they are with their dad and during school holidays we divide the time they spend with each one of us.
Together with my Beloved I will share a weekly post from my Custody Loss Novel and resources that helped me through the Custody Battle and subsequent Custody Loss. I will also participate in the monthly Custody Podcast with Erin and Yvonne that will be posted on the Telegram group and the HGM blog. I will also help Yvonne to Co-host a monthly fellowship to discuss navigating shared custody as His Bride.
Yvonne: Even though I have had shared custody of my children all these years, I still felt I lost a lot of time with them, and I did the math. A third of the year, my children are not with me, and I fretted about how much time I lost with them.
He gave me the desires of my heart and made my dream come true of homeschooling my children. Now, I have my children with me the whole day, and He gave me back what the devourer stole from me—TIME with my children—TIME to teach them in the way they should go.
Together with my Husband, I will have a PODCAST with Erin and Adina once a month that will be devoted to Custody. We will also have a fellowship once a month where I will host and Adina will Co-host, on the 2nd Wednesday of every month. During the fellowship we will discuss navigating shared custody as His Bride. We will allow for questions to be asked prior to the fellowship and also use the fellowship as a PODCAST if He leads.
Erin: When my ex wrote telling me our three youngest needed "both a mother and a father," I agreed—knowing God says children are to honor both mother and father. I was also well aware of what made Solomon the wisest man, which was the story of the women who each claimed the same "living" child, but only one would not allow the child to be cut in half—the true mother.
Together, my Husband and I will be continuing our podcasts, but now we've agreed that once a month will be devoted to discussing CUSTODY issues. It will post on the last FRIDAY of each month on HGM blog.—SOONER on the CUSTODY Telegram Group.
We will be recording our CUSTODY Podcasts every 3rd Thursday of Every Month. It will post on the first FRIDAY of each month on the HGM blog—SOONER on the CUSTODY Telegram Group
Custody PODCASTS:
Living the Abundant Life and sharing Custody
Restoration Journey Novel:
“My Custody Loss”
Adina Jacobs
It is my hope and prayer that what I shared in my Novel, will help and encourage you to go through custody battles, or anything that comes against you, with the Lord as your Mighty Counsellor, with Him right by your side holding you, because if you face these trails with Him and His way, He will be faithful and turn it around for your good!
Resources that helped me through Custody Loss: Facing Divorce Course
Finding the Abundant Life, Chapter 12 “Your Best Protection”
🎥"Your Best Protection" Podcast with Yvonne, based on Chapter 12 “Your Best Protection”
🎥 How did I cope with Custody Loss
Trusting God with Restoring Custody may be one of the most difficult and controversial topics in the United States, which has become a deadly battleground. Almost daily, a parent fighting for custody is found dead, killed by the other parent, so the child (once fought over) is basically orphaned—the loss of (usually) the mother and a serving a life sentence in prison.
We need YOU. Please comment below to help water this new branch with encouragement about what you'd like to see so we can ENCOURAGE you when you are dealing with custody.
Do you like the picture of the mother with her children and also including the father—since ideally it's God's desire for children to have both a mother and a father?
Are there resources we failed to add here that have been helpful to your custody?
When commenting, let us know how old your son(s) are and any other input, once again, to water this seed we've planted, we can watch it grow.
To JOIN our Telegram GROUPS, you must be a Restoration Fellowship Member. If you're not sure if you registered as a member, comment below, and we will share the embedded spreadsheet so you can look for your name and ID#.