Who I Am and Why I Fight

I’m a mother of two, and my life sits at the intersection of survival, systems, and the fight to protect the children those systems routinely fail.

My older son, Austin, was born in 2016 during my first marriage—an abusive relationship that lasted over thirteen years. I left after he tried to kill my son and me.

I haven’t seen Austin in two years. His father has full custody and controls every point of access. I get two short phone calls a week, each under a minute. I don’t have any current photos of my own child because he refuses to share them and blocked the school from allowing me to see any images once he found out I could access them.

Everything about that ongoing fight lives under #bringaustinhome.

My younger son, Orion, was born in 2023 through IVF during my second marriage—a whirlwind COVID romance to a man I call “Husband 2.0,” because he is, by every measurable standard, an upgrade from Husband 1.0. Orion was born with a rare congenital condition that affects his breathing. His updates live under #babyOrion.

Professionally, I’m a data scientist and software developer. Personally, I’m an advocate focused on the way domestic violence is weaponized in family court and how post-separation abuse continues long after the relationship ends—especially through custody, access, and the slow, strategic erasure of the protective parent.

I grew up isolated in a cult, cut off from support, and abused from childhood onward. I have no contact with my family of origin—the people who created me, controlled me, and used me as a captive resource, not a child. I am still actively stalked and harassed.

I’m angry and I’m hurt, and there’s nothing irrational about it. That anger has direction. It fuels the work I do to expose and change the systems that put Austin and me here.

This space is where I document the fight, the research, the advocacy, and—in the moments where I can manage it—the hope that we can build something better than what I survived.