I tell myself that I can’t keep living like this. He keeps blocking everything I try for our daughter. I’m so tired of having to constantly justify and defend myself, having to prove that I’m a “good mother,” even with my disability.

I speak to my lawyer and put together a case. We assemble all the emails where my ex refuses to approve the sessions, as well as the recommendations from the school. The judge looks over the documents and notes the repeated obstructions. He gives me sole decision-making responsibility about routine care, like speech-language pathology. I can finally make decisions for my daughter, but I know he’ll find a way to make me pay for this. As we’re leaving the courtroom, he tells me, “Just you wait, you’ll be getting a visit from a bailiff very soon.”