separation hurts kids

Jenna was five when her parents separated, and her father cruelly made the whole experience so much worse than it needed to be by tricking Jenna’s mother into allowing him to take the little girl to Australia for a short visit to meet his parents.

"What mom didn't know - and I didn't know either," explains Jenna, "is that dad was kidnapping me and had no intention of returning me home to mom."

"I cried a lot at my grandparent's home because I missed mom so much," says Jenna. "And I missed my friends, my bedroom, my toys and everything familiar to me."

"Dad kept on telling me that mom didn't want me and that's why she let me go - and told me that I was staying with him in Australia forever."

"This confused me because mom had told me every day how much she loved me,” says Jenna. “I didn't want to stay in Australia - I wanted to go home to my mom - and I cried and cried so much that dad got angry with me and I was really scared of him."

"At night I could hear my dad talking to his parents and they had lots of arguments," says Jenna. “I was so unhappy and missed my mom so much.”

“Why couldn’t my dad see how much he was hurting me?”

"Mom told me later that I had been away for two months - but it felt like two years. I hardly recognized her when I returned."

"Mom told me that she had telephoned dad every day begging him to bring me home,” say Jenna, “and he refused to let her speak to me.”

"He lied to me and told me that mom didn't want to talk to me – and then I'd cry even more because I felt that nobody loved me any more."

"Apparently dad had kidnapped me and was forced by a court order that mom had taken out to return me home."

"Both of them were pulling me and my dad was begging me not to leave him - but mom had some men with her and they told me to go with my mom."

Read more of Jenna's story:

Koala Kid