International Child Abduction: A child victim's story - another work in progress

The world is a difficult and scary place when children of a multi-national marriage are taken by one parent to a country where the other parent loses de facto custody, or loses the ability to visit the child, or cannot even enter the country or contact the child. If you think it's bad for the losing parent, think how bad it must be for the children.

My new work in progress, as yet unnamed, is based upon this subject. Although fiction, it is inspired by a true story and told from the child's point of view, it describes many years of separation between a father and child, where the child was removed from their home county with no warning.

Now, as strange as this may seem, there are many countries of the world where there is no legal recourse for the losing parent. None at all. (The non-blue countries, below.)

In some cases, the practices of the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction apply. And, even those countries, the return of an abducted child is not at all certain and can take countless years, often with child aging out (at age 16) of the provisions of the Hague Convention.

If I paint a dark picture, where many children never see the losing parent again, this is the reality. My work will try and humanize international child abduction, with a rarely viewed children's perception of this terrible kind of event.

In the meantime, I hope you keep reading my other books.

Wil

I wish I had... but didn't. So, the time to start is now.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is now. (Chinese proverb)

I was looking at that Chinese proverb, and thinking about how it could apply to so much of our lives. It might be 20 days, or 20 years, but it's all lost time. For instance, one could say, “I wish I’d started publishing my novels 20 years ago, but I didn’t, so I’m going to start now.”

Think of all the other statements that could be said:

 -      - “I wish I’d started learning to swim, or golf, or learn Azeri, or learn Tae Kwon Do, or travel, or go to the library, or read more books 20 years ago, but I didn’t. So, I’m going to start now.”

-   “I wish I’d started to save and spend my money better 20 years ago, but I didn’t. So, I’m going to start now.”

-  “I should have started to tell my son how proud I've been of his accomplishments at school. But I haven’t, so I’m going to start now.”

-  “I should have attended more of my daughter’s ballet recitals when she first got started. But, I didn’t, so I’m going to start now.”

-  “I wish I’d said more times how much I love and appreciate my father or mother or brother or sister or grandparent, and I didn’t, so I’d better get started now.”

What you don’t want to say is:

-  “I wish I’d told my father or mother, or my grandpa or grandma, or my uncle or aunt, or my brother or my sister, or my son or my daughter, or husband or wife how much I love them, but now it’s too late.”

So, whether it's one year or 20 years, perhaps the message here is that we should not put off until tomorrow what we can or should do today. Because, just perhaps, tomorrow will be too late.

Wil