Dear Friends and Family,

We are not going to Iowa for a custody trial.

We have reached an out-of-court divorce settlement with Tina and Lon (whose case this legally as been).

Tina will retain primary care (for now), but Lon will have joint legal custody of Rowan. Lon (we) has been guarantee visitation with him in our home three weeks out of every three months, sharing holidays and reasonable visitation whenever we are where he lives (currently Iowa). After he is in school that would switch to one week in winter, one week in spring, and eight weeks in the summer. We also have unlimited phone and mail contact with him.

We have to give a lot in concessions for this. Tina was particularly harsh on the financial end of things. We will end up paying all of his visitation costs until he is in school (very high cost) and 3/4 once he is in school. Plus she gets all tax credits and weekly support checks from Lon.

Lon will be legally divorced from Tina in time for his birthday, Dec. 3. Talk about an end to Saturn Return!

We really wanted to thank our friends and family for all the support you have given on this.

Last Sunday night we held a ritual in our home and the next morning Tina's lawyer called with a settlement offer! Wow, you folks do good magic!

Thank you to everyone who has sent energy to help. We believe you have!

Thank you to everyone who has sent words of encouragement and/or listen to us grieve over this for the last two years!

Thank you to everyone who sent letter to the home study person and affidavits to the court! You are amazing!

Thank you to everyone who was willing to go into court and testify on our behalf. That took courage and we will always be grateful to you for being willing to face this with us.

Thank you to everyone who have been our friends in the last two years for helping us through the most difficult time of our lives.

We will be having Thanksgiving day dinner with Troy's family and hosting a Thanksgiving celebration with family/friends here on Sunday. We truly have a lot for to be grateful. We are already planning the three weeks Rowan will spend with us in Dec./Jan. We will use the money we would have had to spend on the trip to bring him here!

We are also hosting a Yule Celebration here Dec. 20/21. We celebrate the longest night of the year and the return of the sun/son by sharing it with our community. Festivities will begin at 10 PM, a dark night ritual around midnight and a morning ritual greeting the sun at dawn. If you want to join us for part or all of this celebration, please contact us for more details.

You have all made a difference in our lives and Rowan's life. Without your support, we could not have made it through. Thank you.

Love,
Dawn, Troy and Lon

P.S. Yes, I am still sick (constant dizziness and nausea) and we still don't know why. They are running a whole series of tests and I won't have any of the results until next week. Thanks.