My name is nirvana, I am 22 years old and live in Leicester city. I have a 4 year old daughter who currently lives with her paternal grandmother under a special guardianship order.
I was 17 years old when my daughter was born. I was living with her paternal grandmother whilst her father lived alone. The relationship was at breaking point by the time my daughter was born Which is why we lived separate and social services were involved. Their was domestic violence and my ex partner was in and out of prison. I was young at the time and didn't realize the seriousness of the situation which is were the paternal grandmother took the lead.
I felt trapped and couldn't leave his family due to early arrangements of the social services. I was separated from my ex partner but was forced to live with his mother and we eventually started disagreeing on the up bringing of my daughter. Social services intervened and ended up removing me from the house without my daughter. The legal battle began.
Court didn't go well for myself but I was happy that my daughter wasn't placed into care. The judge set out an agreement for me to come back to court once I had made significant changes in my life. In the meantime it was ordered that I keep contact with my daughter, I was given once a week for 4 hours unsupervised to start with which was increased to have one day at the weekend to spend more time together as she grows. I completed a domestic violence course to raise my awareness and protect myself and my daughter from potential domestic abuse. I have used the time given to progress my education and I now study child care at university.
My life has changed so much in 5 years. I have gained independence and proven I am ready to play a bigger part in my daughter's Life. Contact arrangements have broken down all together due to the paternal grandmother realising I am seriouse about taking my daughter on full time. It upsets me to think I have to fight a legal case to have contact but have no choice. Legal aid isn't an option so we must pay for legal proceedings to commence. I am trying to raise money for the on going court case.