Posted on 01/02/2015 6:18:35 AM PST by wagglebee
Four years ago, I was going through life like I had it all figured out — perfect family, perfect job, perfect home. Our proud military family was living the American dream — we had it all. On December 21, 2010 — the darkest day of the year, everything changed for us as a family. Little did we know our lives were forever transformed or what that ill-lighted date would come to represent.
Mother’s Day 2011 — the memory of that day is so surreal. It is the day I found out our 14 year old daughter Pyper had been raped by an 18 year old soldier and was pregnant as a result. There was no going back to our perfect life, and this would be the first of many painful days for our family.
Our family has experienced too many low points over the past four years to count. For me, the hardest is a reoccurring nightmare which happens around the same time every year in December. Invariably, over the past three years, instead of making holiday plans, we found ourselves reacting to or reeling from some event resultant from that day in December, 2010.
As 2012 progressed, the fight to right Pyper’s wrong intensified. In December, 2012, we were facing one of the most daunting tasks of our lives. No one could have prepared us for the horrors of what we were about to endure, which included a defense attorney suggesting to our daughter that she wasn’t really raped because she failed to abort. We spent the week preceding December 21st sitting in a military courtroom half-way across the country praying that our ordeal would end. It didn’t. What prosecutors told us should have been a slum-dunk case involving not only forcible rape, but strict liability statutory rape, inexplicably ended in a 3-3 hung jury. In the military, this means the rapist is acquitted. On the 21st — that same dark date, we found ourselves packed inside a minivan, in shock and disbelief, driving a thousand miles to get back home.
Our situation was about to get worse, as our grandson Noah was in danger. In response to our daughter pressing charges, the rapist’s attorney had filed for custody. We’d been warned that this was a common strategy, and with the failure to obtain justice in the criminal trial, the stage had been set for a bitter custody battle in civil court.
Over the next twelve months, we were hit with a deluge of court documents and besieged by harassment and threats. Each day brought a new fear — the distress was consuming, but as our days grew darker, our resolve grew stronger. There was no way we were going to give up! December, 2013 found us sitting in a different courtroom, in a different town, over the same dark days as the past three years. This time it wasn’t about right and wrong — we were fighting for our very lives; we were fighting for Noah. Expending every fiber of our being, down to our last breath, we battled for our precious little boy. This time, the outcome would be different.
On the day the court’s decision came in, we didn’t celebrate. Instead, we passed the day in reverent silence with just a few calls to the family and friends who remained. The freedom from our tormentors was final in March, 2014, and we slowly began to regain some of what we lost; to find our new normal.
As December, 2014 clicks by, we still find ourselves looking over our shoulders, watching and waiting; paying close attention to what is happening around us. Our enemy is silent, but we remain vigilant; ready to fight hell itself to protect our “hand-picked” angel. We have our little Noah — our gift, our daughter’s beauty from the ashes.
My husband has this to offer, “There is nothing that can sufficiently prepare you for the trials you face. Although there are many horrible things that could happen, the present conflict is always the worst. What happened yesterday is past, tomorrow is not here, focus on today and no matter what you are up against, keep pressing forward. As a parent or grandparent, you have to stay strong and fight with an unbridled tenacity because at the end of the day, next to God, your family is all that matters.”
It has been by God’s mercy and grace alone that we are where we are. He has taken an act of iniquity and turned it into an act of goodness to bring glory to His name. Our grandson is the ark that carried our family through our darkest days. He has been and is the light in the darkness; the anchor given to us by God to hold us firm in our faith.
as opposed to a civil court?
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I guess that should actually be criminal court...
good for you. Sounds like you are doing the right thing.
sex without consequences IS progressivism
I hope and pray to God so.
One is out of the house in college and seems to be keeping to the straight and narrow. I have four others at home and the 13 Year old is the only one who seems to bristle (slightly) at Daddies paranoia.
The good thing is that the rest of them like going to all the same places, so there is always a crowd event wherever she goes. Again, she doesn’t seem to mind, but my daddy sense never seems to take a rest.
So are you trying to say that a woman can’t be raped? If so, you’re an ass!
NO ! was trying to back up point made by JAG poster who said unless woman is bloody mess, military court often refuse to believe her
Why does everyone seem to miss point - IS IT THAT OBTUSE
Sorry...you should have included a “sarc” tag.
W@e’ve come a long way over the last few decades in understanding sexual deviants preying on children; now we know few things attract them more than the groups and activities you mentioned. They seek out such things for a pool of potential victims.
I was very surprised to see a fenced in playground area in a nearby park; a sign prominently displayed at the one entrance made it clear that adults must be accompanied by children to enter. As a parent I understand it; as a taxpayer I question the legality of it.
Well said!
And ... what? Do you suppose that to be a legitimate response to a charge of rape?
Why was this tried in a Military court as opposed to a civil court? I realized it involved a member of the military but isn’t there civil courts to deal with rape also?
I assume it happened on a military base and the parents reported it through military channels. The military often petitions the local authorities for jurisdiction when incidents happen off base.
Since it involved a military dependent and a Soldier I assume the local authorities didn’t want anything to do with it.
Point of story is to illustrate mindset of military toward
rape (and women in general)
As a First Sergeant I worked with several cases of genuine and false claims of sexual assault and we took it very seriously.
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