Help Our Family Through This Crisis

HELP OUR FAMILY THROUGH THIS CRISIS

I never imagined I would have to publicly ask people for financial help, but I have reached the point where I genuinely need it.

I BELIEVE I AM NEARING THE FINISH LINE — BUT I HAVE RUN OUT OF GAS.

MY LIFE AS A FATHER

I have been a parent for essentially my entire adult life.

In 2000, when I was 20 years old, I became responsible for a six-month-old child.

That little girl is now grown, married, living in the United States, has earned a master’s degree, has a successful career, and has built an excellent life of her own. She first came with me to Thailand when she was only 10 years old.

Years later, my life became established in Thailand, and my family continued to grow.

It did not suddenly become a family of five children. Over the years, a younger blended family gradually grew around me here in Thailand until there were five siblings growing up together as a family.

They ate together, traveled together, studied together, celebrated holidays and birthdays together, went to activities together, played together, argued like siblings do, made up again, and shared ordinary everyday family life.

I was there for that daily life.

I am still there.

TODAY, THAT FAMILY OF FIVE SIBLINGS HAS BEEN SEPARATED

Two of the children remain with me every day, in the same home and the same rooms where they have been growing up.

One of them still sleeps in the bedroom she was born into.

This is important for people to understand:

This is not the story of a father who disappeared from his children’s lives and is now trying to come back.

I have been an active daily father throughout their lives.

Two of the siblings are now living with their mother and have been separated from the rest of our household for close to a year and a half.

Another sibling remains part of our family but is temporarily living farther away and spending more time with her other parent because the financial strain of everything that has happened has made our normal arrangements much harder to maintain.

So a family of five siblings who grew up together is now divided between different homes and different places.

That has been incredibly difficult for all of us.

I HAVE TRIED TO RESOLVE THIS PRIVATELY

I have repeatedly tried to find a private solution.

I have tried to find a way for the adults to reach an agreement, bring the children back into a normal relationship with one another, and preserve a normal relationship with both parents.

We have not been able to reach that agreement.

Instead, the situation has developed into prolonged and extremely demanding family litigation in Thailand.

Because children are involved and Thai family proceedings are subject to strict privacy rules, there are important limits on what I can explain publicly.

I cannot publish the underlying evidence, allegations, court documents, or many of the details of what has happened.

I understand that people may be reluctant to take sides when they do not know those details.

I am not asking anyone to take sides.

I am asking for help getting our family through an extraordinary financial crisis created by the amount of work and expense required to get through this process.

I HAVE CARRIED THIS AS FAR AS I POSSIBLY CAN

I have funded this myself for as long as I could.

I exhausted my savings.

I sold our car so I could continue.

Our household has cut back substantially. We are living simply and doing everything reasonably possible to keep expenses down.

And now I have simply run out.

After serious difficulties with previous legal representation, I am now self-represented.

I am not a lawyer and I do not have a law degree, but I am also not unfamiliar with complex legal work.

Before leaving that field in 2015 to focus on family life, I worked internationally in legal, compliance, and serious investigative roles involving cross-border research, multiple jurisdictions, complicated legal and regulatory material, and research across many different languages.

That experience has helped me enormously.

But adapting everything to Thai law, Thai procedure and Thai-language requirements, while handling the sheer volume of this matter myself, has consumed virtually every productive hour I have.

MORE THAN 2,200 PAGES IN AUGUST ALONE

In August alone, I have prepared, processed, translated, organized or assembled more than 2,200 pages of legal, administrative and child-welfare material.

That number is real.

More than 2,200 pages in a single month.

And those pages are only the finished work.

Behind them are countless additional hours researching Thai statutes and Supreme Court decisions, reviewing messages and records, locating material, taking screenshots, building and organizing large databases, cross-referencing evidence, translating, formatting, indexing, printing, assembling submissions, dealing with administrative processes, and preparing for what comes next.

At the same time, normal parenting does not stop.

I AM STILL A FULL-TIME FATHER

I am also an approved homeschooling parent here in Thailand.

One of my children was the first child in our province approved under the particular homeschooling arrangement we are using.

While all of this legal and administrative work is happening, I am still responsible for everyday parenting and education.

Children still need meals.

They still need school.

They still need activities.

They still need stability.

They still need Dad.

And they have felt the consequences of this process too.

They have watched our car be sold.

They have watched our routines change.

They have watched their siblings become separated from them.

And they have watched Dad spend almost every available working hour researching, translating, preparing documents and trying to get our family through this.

They are counting on me to keep going.

THE FINANCIAL IMPACT HAS EXCEEDED 1 MILLION BAHT

When direct expenses, lost working time, translations, interpreter costs, travel, printing, administrative expenses and the enormous amount of professional work I have had to perform myself are taken into account, the total financial impact on our family has now exceeded 1 million baht.

I have carried that burden as far as I can.

And I genuinely believe I am now nearing the finish line.

There are about five and a half weeks until the next major court date.

There is still an enormous amount of work to complete during those weeks.

But after carrying this for so long, I have reached this final stretch completely out of gas.

I AM ASKING FOR 54,000 BAHT

I am not asking anyone to finance an entire lawsuit.

That enormous burden has already been carried.

I am asking for 54,000 baht to help me get through these remaining weeks and meet the unavoidable final legal and case-related costs — particularly translations, interpreter assistance, document preparation, printing, required travel, administrative work and the remaining expenses of getting through this stage properly.

My income is extremely limited right now because virtually every available working hour has been consumed by this process.

That is not where I intend to remain.

Once I get through this intense period, I expect to be able to turn my time and energy back toward normal paid work.

I AM ALSO HAPPY TO WORK FOR YOUR HELP

I am a professional writer and researcher.

I work with advanced AI-assisted research and translation systems, websites, social media, marketing, online research, document preparation and many other kinds of professional work.

If you would rather help me by giving me work instead of making a donation, I am grateful for that too.

I am willing to work.

I am willing to help people back.

I have simply reached a short period where this family crisis has consumed virtually everything I have.

WE JUST NEED A LITTLE HELP

I spent what I could spend.

I sold what I could sell.

I worked every hour I could work.

I repeatedly tried to resolve this without continuing through prolonged litigation.

And I have given these children everything I have.

Now I believe I am almost there.

But I cannot carry these final weeks completely alone.

We just need a little bit of help.

More than anything, I want these five siblings to have a normal relationship with one another again and to be able to grow up knowing that the adults did everything possible to preserve their relationships with their family.

If you can contribute, I will be deeply grateful.

If you cannot contribute but can share this campaign with people who know me, know our family, or may be willing to help, that means a great deal too.

And if there is professional work I can do for you, please contact me.

Thank you for helping us through the final stretch.

Thank you for helping Dad keep going when he has finally run out of gas.