Yes

 I have made my decision.  I am a good mother.

Dear Mateo

You can spend the weekend at your cousins’ house with Andrea and Chuck and their 5 children.  You will not leave your mother and travel to Austin Rd with papa.

I have made a decision to live at Muckle Rd.  This is our home now.  We left our home of Austin Rd and now we are building a new home.  We have each other and our ever evolving relationship, and we are building relationships with Mark, and the land where we live, the hills and the creek and the dogs and Uncle Joe next door and the Volvo and the homeschool group and Awana and the Library and Lake Michigan...  This is our home now.  I love our home on Austin Rd and I always will, AND we can hold Austin Rd in Love while we move forward and develop our life at Muckle Road.  

Your Freedom is a priority to me and together, we have found many ways to support and allow and encourage your Freedom in our daily lives.  At 7 years old it is easy for you to understand why I have guided you away from touching the hot stove and playing around an open fire.  You can easily understand and sense the danger in touching a hot stove and in allowing play that leads to falling near an open fire.  When you read this letter, many years from now, I believe you will at least respect my clear, firm decision to keep you physically with me, not allowing you to travel and spend time with papa away from your new home.

At this current time, your papa continues to offer behavior demonstrating dishonesty.  He is not a bad person, but he has chosen to not examine his behaviors, thus continuing unhealthy habits that have developed over the years.  I am not going to allow you to spend time with a person I can’t trust, even if it is your papa. 

Papa talks about me in such a way that one person he chooses to spend a great deal of time with, sent me a text message, threatening to call the police, accusing me of 6 specific illegal activities.  This text message, and papa’s ongoing relationship with this person, demonstrates the way papa feels about me and what he believes should happen to me.  He tells people that I have committed illegal activity and I should have the authorities involved to punish me for my behavior.  I have asked a few times for papa and this person to clear up the issue so that we can move forward with you visiting papa, free of the idea he raised about me being accused and turned in to the police.  Papa and his companion have both refused to acknowledge the text message.  I am not going to allow my child to spend time away from me, with a person that creates this situation of threat and accusation, and then refuses to clean it up.  It could be cleaned up.  

Text message from papa’s companion to me:

"you have abandon a property -- which is illegal.

Take a child away from their father without consent -- illegal.

You have made threats against peoples lives -- illegal.

What you are doing to Miguel is extortion, elderly abuse and straight up theft ... taking all the money from the cows -- from his herd.  

You are out of line and I hope you step foot back in hillsdale county.  

I pray for Mateo's safety.  If he had a SS# I would already called the cops & so would many others.  You are not in control here.  "

A friend that supported you in your new life might mail you the Legos that were left behind at Austin Road.  A balanced person would celebrate with you where you now live and support your mother in her decision to create a loving home for you.  I really wish you had all your Legos and the instruction books for all the fun sets you have built.  You have a lot of people who love you and have rained down gifts upon you.  It would be wonderful if papa would accept your new home and celebrate with you by sending along some of the physical toys you enjoy so much.  

Until then, we will move forward with what we have, continuing to feel appreciation for what has gone before.