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Home |
Parents |
Kids Link-history |
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Links |
for parents & kids |
Custody Battle: Blogged |
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 Welcome. I am the the co-founder of The Link, established in New York City in 1997. We are now based in Norway (me Sarah Cecilie in the picture above with my family) and Austria (Linnea). I was parentally abducted from Norway to the USA as a 4-year-old, and did not reunite with my left-behind parent (my mother) until I was 18. After trying unsuccesfully to find support groups or websites for parentally abducted children I formed The Link with the help of Child Find of America, a missing children´s organization in New York State. After discovering that at the time there were no resources whatsoever for parentally abducted children who were going into adulthood with unresolved issues, broken bonds with family members, and identity and cultural issues that needed to be addressed, I wrote and sent out copies of my first newsletter to 500 children and adults who had experienced parental abduction. The response was incredible. I was overwhelmed by the influx of letters, phone calls and emails from others in my situation and requests from the media for information about parental child abduction. I even got a letter from a death-row inmate who had been abducted as a child. The Link was originally established as a forum for children who were parentally abducted as children to speak and be heard. Although some resources existed for parents, with a focus on parental rights and issues, nothing existed that focused on healing broken bonds in families that experience abduction or custody traumas. Amazingly, we kids were expected to be fine once we reunited with our families and entered adulthood. But in actuality is is then that many problems and issues come to the forefront. A forum was needed for adults who had been abducted as children and for the increasing numbers of children who were affected by high-conflict custody battles. Their parents and other family members needed support in reconnecting with kids who had been separated from them by physical and/or emotional distance as well. In the past 10 years I have been part of a Congressional press conference in Washington, spoke at the founding dinner for the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in London, appeared on the Maury Povich Show, CNN, Northwest Afternoon and others, and have been interviewed by Ladies Home Journal, The Washington Post, & Norway´s Aftenposten & Dagsavisen. I am conducting a Fulbright research project on parental abduction in Norway, my new home. It feels good to speak out about the damage high-conflict custody battles do to families. The need for other families caught in the middle to speak out is tremendous. More and more families will be affected by divorce and abduction in the years to come, and resources that focus on these families are sorely needed. Drop me a line. I welcome your emails, articles, suggestions and anything else you would like to share. Regards, Ceci Sarah Click here for my story | Co-founder Linnea's Story | | Return Home | For Parents | The Kids Link-history | THE LINK Newsletter | A Therapist´s Tale | Great Links | Advice for parents & kids | A Custody Battle: Blogged | |
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