In the summertime...

Hey Grace.
It's been a while since I last wrote.
It is now summertime and the days are longer, the temperatures warmer and generally life seems better in the sun shine, do you agree?
I wonder how you are and what you are doing. The Easter holidays are upon us which means that I am sure you and your mom and your friends will have some fun things planned I am sure, I wonder if your Auntie Clare is coming down with Elliott and Evan or maybe you'll be going to them?
I hope you are happy Grace and you are healthy.
I love writing songs and singing them and have joined a Songwriters circle which is held at the MAC (Midland arts centre) which meet evry wednesday evening, where other like minded singer songwriters meet  up and share their songs as well as receiving feedback and support from the course leader, Dan Whitehouse who is very experienced himself.
I really enjoy it and it's a great way of meeting new people as well as getting to sing and play every week.
We recently had an assignment to do a song with a name in the title. I chose 'Grace' as the name and although I havent finished the song yet, it's starting to sound good. I do however get quite emotional when playing it as it reminds me that I havent seen you for a long time and that makes me sad.

However, I think it's a good way of keeping you in my thoughts and I hope one day I will get to play it to you, when it's finished, in the mean time I will keep going with it. I have also been out busing a few times, when the weather has been good and that is something that gives me a lot of joy, I have had some good feedback as well with people giving me money and approving looks as they walk past. I know you didn't like me playing the guitar and singing sometimes but then other times you would dance around which really was a beautiful memory.
It's not long now before the court date and hopefully I can get a court order which means that I can start to see you again, if that's what you want of course and if your Mom allows it.
I will keep you up to date with developments in that regard.

Here's a couple of photographs I took on the last Walkabout Workshop that I led. It's a 4 hr workshop that teaches people the basics of photography and then we go out and practice the techniques around the city afterwards.

                                                   And here's a picture of cheeky monkey! :)

I love you my beautiful Grace.

Be happy.

Daddy.xxx

New year, new beginings

Hey Grace
Happy New Year to you.

There's been quite a lot of changes happening over the past few weeks so I'll just give you an overview of what's been happening.

I may have mentioned that I have applied to the court to get a court order so I can see you, this is a long process which started early last year and is still ongoing. However, your mother and I went to the family court on the 22nd January, a few weeks ago and had the initial hearing which was basically me saying that I wanted to see you and be able to have regular contact and your mom to say why she didn't want that to happen, this will be followed by an investigation by CAFCASS and they will then report back to the judge with what they found after talking to you me and your mom, the judge will then decide what is in the best interests for you.
The next time we go to court at the end of April 2014 in a couple of months, will be to hear what the Judge thinks and he/she will either allow some form of contact, like what we had before, me seeing you/you being able to see me regularly, restricted access, which means we may have to meet in an approved contact centre or it may be that he/she thinks that  shouldn't have any contact with you or you with me.

I don't know what will happen but I believe that praying for the best outcome for all of us and trusting God, we can accept what the decision will be. None of this is final Grace and things always change, so whatever happens I hope that one day we will be able to see each other again, we just have to wait.

I am writing this so that one day you will be able to know the truth of what happened, from my point of view anyway, and know that I am doing what I can to be in your life and let you know that I always think of you and never stopped loving you just because I didn't see you.
I am hoping to get some updates on how you're getting on at school soon as well as I was on the mailing list but for some reason stopped getting the updates, I asked the headmistress and she's looking in to it.

I wonder how you're getting on at the moment.

I am doing a computer course at the moment and it's really quite challenging, even though I thought it would be easy, I never was that good at concentrating at school and so as an adult I glad to say I find it a bit easier to focus.
Don't worry about anything Grace, just pray to a god of your understanding, ask for strength, courage and wisdom to do the next right thing and let god take care of the rest.
You're a beautiful soul and I am proud to be your Dad. Always remember that.

Have fun and  live your truth

Speak again soon

All my love


This is a picture I took for my website, do you like it?






Daddy.xxx