Carlos Rodriguez had gone nearly 8 months without seeing his daughter when he was referred for supervised visits through Family Court Services in January 2021. He had gone nearly 8 months without seeing his daughter. Carlos was told that his visits would be about $80 for 1 hour. He has two jobs and with all his expenses and monthly child support payments, he still did not have the funds needed to pay for his supervised visits. He was desperate – what is he supposed to do now? With the extraordinary services offered for free at Family Court Services, the Judge was able to refer this family for supervised visitation and for co-parenting (in order to help the parents work out their issues). All for free at no cost to them. Carlos was able to see his daughter within the next week! This was a very emotional day for Mr. Rodriguez. He had a difficult time holding in his emotions and was so overwhelmed with seeing his daughter again after such a long time. He was able to see his daughter once a week for 12 weeks. After the 12th week, the Judge saw how great his visits went and allowed him to have unsupervised visits with his daughter. Carlos called Family Court Services to report the good news and as he was crying on the phone he said, “The Court has answered my prayers! If I had some words of advice for anyone going through what I went through it would be to never give up! Fight for what you love. I am so grateful for everything you guys have done to help me. Telling you thank you is not enough.”

—Story by Doris, Family Court Services Visitation Observer