THRIVING Melanin Family Magazine June 2017: A Father's Love | Page 22

A Child’s Glory is their Father
by E. Geno Heffner III
I’ve been #SavingGia for a more than 4 years now.
I was asked 3 times to marry her and finally
compromising
after
learning we were pregnant
(not knowing her reasoning
and thirst to make it
happen) I married her. I
had to divorce her due to
deceit and vow breaking
just after 1 year and 3
months. This was done
because I respect myself more than to allow her
to remain with me and continue her relationship
with another woman’s husband and neglect “us”.
Our separation and divorce caused her to want
to punish me by taking my daughter from me.
Unfortunately, I did not know any better at that time
as far as my rights as a husband with a child, and
there are time’s I wish I caught the warning signs
in advance, like her mentioning an abortion every
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month until the end of the second trimester, then
taking pills until passing out in the bathroom in
October of 2011. I was hopeful and in love with who
I thought she was. I tried
everything from counseling
to getting desperate and
reaching out to family,
but all my attempts were
unsuccessful. I lost my
marriage and my child.
Gia has been neglected for
almost 5 years now, since September 2012.The
first time I saw my daughter after about a month
of not being allowed, I saw her and my ex-wife
with her married “friend”. The fourth time I saw
my daughter after that hurt me so bad because
she was looking at me as if she was trying to
remember who I was, she was about 9 months
old at that time. I’ve been mentally and financially
abused by her mother not just directly, but also
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