This book is a serious, but humorous guide for raising awesome kids. It is written and illustrated by a mother of six children in a way that is easy for anyone to understand and relate to, and is based on true accountings of her own experiences with her family.

Proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit Kobi's Korner, Inc. a non-profit organization which provides services for abused children and their supporters.

A Word About Kobi’s Korner™

“The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.” (Orison Swett Marden)

When a person says “No” to sexual advances, that means No. If that answer goes unheeded, the result is rape, plain and simple.

Seven and a half years ago, I said no to a fellow classmate while helping him study for midterms. I was raped. Due to the fear common to many rape survivors of legal exploitation and possible retaliation, I decided to spare my two young daughters the ordeal of their mother pursuing a rape trial. However, as a result of the rape I became pregnant. Believing that all life is sacred, I chose to keep the child. Not having anywhere to turn for help and support at that time due to my decision to keep the child, I turned to the man’s family for help, feeling that what had been done to me was not their fault. They assured me that in exchange for not prosecuting, they would keep this man with serious mental illnesses away from me.

How naïve and wrong I was.

After three years of no contact, after having met and married my wonderful husband Victor and my life soaring onward and upward, this man came forward—with the admitted financial backing of his family—and sued for visitation of this child… and won. The judge would not allow my witnesses to testify, and would not allow evidence of the man’s psychological illness to be presented, nor would she allow the man to testify about his psychological illness. Even after this man admitted his severe psychiatric condition under oath, and said that he could not guarantee the safety of either himself or anyone else, and ignoring the professional advise of the therapist involved in the case as my child’s advocate, the judge awarded four week-long visitations with this man, supervised only by his mother. The Florida judge did not care about the circumstances of the child’s conception nor would my attorney at that time acknowledge it in court either. Neither did they care that the child was being raised by the only man he knew as “daddy” in a loving home. According to the state of Florida, biology supercedes all else, including the rights of the child to remain mentally healthy.

To summarize briefly, the four week-long visitations between this man and my child resulted in our family being plunged into horrors that few parents can imagine—the horrors of your child being not only emotionally and physically abused, but sexually abused as well. We have now been fighting our battle to save this child from further abuse for over four years. No one would believe us during the course of the visitation as we watched our child deteriorate from a normal preschooler to a very troubled young child with mental illness. I was tagged as histrionic and deliberately interfering with the bonding process of the child abuser and his child. It was not until this very disturbed individual attempted to destroy my husband and I with proven false allegations of the most heinous of sexual and physical abuse, and our child testifying on three separate occasions, did the truth reveal itself, the truth that our worst nightmares had come true—everything we were accused of doing, this man had done to the child himself. However, the nightmare had only just begun.

Every penny that Victor and I have saved over the years has gone into private investigators, therapists, psychiatrists, medical doctors, tests, scans, court fees, and attorneys. My parents helped out as much as they could, as did my aunt. However, our savings are gone and were mostly placed into the pockets of attorneys—ten to be exact. Most of these “fighters for justice” took our money and quite literally ran when the going got tough; or showed compassion for the child only after having several thousand dollars placed in their hands. One in particular took a retainer, showed up in court for one hour, and later that week closed his practice in Pennsylvania and moved to Florida. Another, who had been working on the case for over two years, said he “would be happy” to file protective motions, but not unless we gave him several thousand dollars: otherwise he “didn’t care what happened to the kid.” His explanation? He “was down to his last million.” We were down to peanut butter and jelly, literally.
Despite the volumes of proof we have, the state of Florida, a state where we have not lived for over four years, continues to hold jurisdiction over this case. There have been six judges involved in this case between Pennsylvania and Florida. In Florida, one has been recused due to judicial bias, gross misuse of judicial power, and violation of my constitutional rights, among other charges. One of her rulings, which nearly destroyed us, was reversed by the First Court of Appeals in Florida in what my appeals attorney called a surprisingly stunning victory for justice and the strongest language he had heard from the Appeals court in a long time. The second judge was rotated off the bench after making his decision to keep a jurisdiction in a city where no parties lived and a state that had allowed us to leave with its blessing four years earlier. The third judge, despite having all of the evidence from Children and Youth Services that the child had been molested by the biological father, stated he did not care what the man had done, did not care that the man had tried to destroy our lives by falsely accusing my husband and me of abuse and molestation of the child, and did not care that the child’s own treating psychologist of over two years indicated the child was in grave emotional and possibly physical danger if allowed to have further contact with the biological father. The judge further stated that in the state of Florida, the biological parent has rights to have a relationship with his or her child and he was going to allow the visitation.

Two judges in Pennsylvania did not want to be bothered with the case; the third judge, one year after having forcibly taken jurisdiction from the state of Florida, and setting a hearing date for termination of the biological parent’s rights, reversed his own decision and sent the entire case back to Florida, knowing full well that Florida was going to allow visitation and knowing full well that the Pennsylvania guardian ad litem involved in the case was supporting Victor’s adoption of the child. My husband and I have yet to have our day in court. No one in all these years has heard our story. The legal file and paper proof is mind-boggling. It truly is a Lifetime Movie.

Throughout this ordeal, Victor and I always kept our faith that some good on some level would come of this. The Creator always put some good and caring people in our path to balance out those who sought financial gain from our tragedy; always showed a glimmer of light in our darkest hours. When turning to my dear friend Monsignor Essiff in tears one day after finding out about the molesting, he said to me, “The answer as to why this has happened will come from your own lips soon enough, and then you will see the big picture.”

The answer is Kobi’s Korner. This organization was named after our brave young survivor who felt it was so important to tell the truth, and who is now so wise beyond his years he gave his permission for our organization to bear part of his name so that more children will be helped. His exact words were, “like you and Daddy helped me, Momma.” He wants to be a police officer when he grows up “to keep more children from being hurt” like he was. Kobi’s Korner is our legacy to not only our child but to children everywhere who society refused to hear and have now been given a voice.
Throughout this ordeal, Victor and I saw the best and worst of our society. We watched those agencies that were set up to protect children drop the ball on our child after deciding they didn’t want to pursue it any further as “the perps had all the rights.” We experienced the police not showing up to testify on behalf of this child who so bravely told the truth to all of them, despite their promises to him that they would show up and protect him. We watched district attorneys in two counties pass the buck and drop the ball, one saying at first that since the abuse did not occur when we lived in his county, he could do nothing other than reporting. He then later claimed that we did not exist at all. We listened in horror to the district attorney of the other county state that he felt “the molesting was accidental” and refuse to prosecute. Accidental? There were pictures and videos. The molester just accidentally had a camera in his hand at the time?

We witnessed therapists being too afraid to tell all that they felt due to “hostility from the judge and possible discrediting.” We watched attorneys profit from our child’s nightmare. We watched a very wealthy family run the system from afar because they could, and witnessed their promise of “bankrupting me out of existence” if I told the truth about how the child was conceived.

I did declare bankruptcy as a result. Except, I did not go anywhere. We came back stronger than ever. I chose to view my bankruptcy as a new beginning. We watched our children band together—our daughters joined forces to help their brother come back from the inner world he was creating and disappearing into. We watched people in our lives being separated into two piles: those who had backbone and those who didn’t and were gone. We found very few willing to hear their calling and follow their hearts to help this child in need, and refusing to financially rape our family as has been done for so many years now.

We worked around the clock to keep financially afloat. We went without, we nearly became homeless, we sacrificed much—but we never gave up. We never lost faith and we never lost hope. Our family was cemented together with a bond that no one could break.

We documented the subtle signs of sexual abuse. We developed alternative therapeutic treatments on our own that saved our child and brought him back, better than ever, and were credited by his psychologist with his total recovery based on our love and dedication to the emotional health of our children. We have spent several years online researching abuse, searching for other families who have experienced nightmarish injustice in the legal system, and researching the laws that exist in other states designed to protect children, but ultimately do not. We have darkened the doors of senators and state representatives and were told that only if we made a “big enough stink” would anything get done or any laws get passed to truly protect children.

Victor pursued a masters in social work, got his LSW, and has become a trauma and abuse specialist for children. I put my board exam as an acupuncturist on hold because the money involved needed to go first to protect our child. I continue to be the “big mouth” of the family. I write and speak out against social injustice and continue to raise my “social workers of the world.” I continue to speak to women and mothers who have suffered abuse, encouraging them to stand up as survivors and move forward with their heads held high knowing they have triumphed over a darkness that would seek to keep them a prisoner of silence. I continue to speak out for children, imploring parents to think before they parent. I continue to tell our story to infuse others with hope and strength. Together Victor and I still continue to fight to save our child from the clutches of a child abuser and a corrupt legal system.

Victor and I have founded a not-for-profit organization called Kobi’s Korner—an organization run exclusively by my and Victor’s hard-earned salaries as well as from private donations. We are in the beginning stages of making this an official nonprofit organization, but this also takes time and money. This organization strives to provide not only mental health services, but any other necessary services, including medical and legal support to victims of abuse and their families who strive to save them—all FREE OF CHARGE. We implement our own style of therapy—that which saved our son, incorporating the arts and music, family/sibling involvement, pet therapy, hug therapy, self-esteem building and rebuilding, and emotional-strength building—turning these young victims into champions. We plan to not only challenge but change and develop laws to truly protect children and give these silent victims a voice and a right to be happy, safe, and emotionally intact. In other words, a right to be carefree children as the Creator intended… not pawns, battering rams, or play toys.

Slowly but surely, Victor and I have begun amassing therapists who are willing to volunteer their time and services, in addition to doctors and attorneys willing to donate their services or significantly reduce their fees—the balance of which will be paid by Kobi’s Korner. We are networking throughout the county to bring providers of Kobi’s Korner into our fold from every major city throughout the county.

Victor and I decided long ago that some good would come from what has happened to our family; that our son’s cries for help would not go unheard. We decided that people would know the depth of corruption that exists in the world of child protection and our legal system. It is our mission statement and pledge to the Creator that no other family will suffer the same indignity as ours has over the years. No family will ever have to choose between feeding their children and paying an attorney to protect their child from abuse. No family will have to feel that they walk their path alone, for Kobi’s Korner will always be there to listen, to help, to protect, and to fight.

After recouping some of our financial losses from our battle to protect our child, the majority of proceeds from the sale of this book, Recipe for the Word’s Greatest Kids, will be donated to Kobi’s Korner to aid in the effort of giving abused children and their families not only a place to go, but a voice as well. Won’t you please help? Every penny brings us closer to finally seeing our dreams for society’s forgotten children come true. Every person who donates to Kobi’s Korner will have their names placed in our record book and finally imprinted on a brick on our Path of Courage that will lead to the front door of Kobi’s Korner headquarters. Every penny donated will go to purchasing the home/property that we are in search of to house Kobi’s Korner as well as offsetting the costs of those providers who reduce their fees for Kobi’s Korner clients.

If you care to help us in our effort to change the lives of abused children, please send your donations to:

Kobi’s Korner
c/o The First United Methodist Church of Wilkes-Barre
47 North Franklin Street
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701

If you are interested in becoming a Kobi’s Korner provider, please contact Victor and Maya, c/o Kobi’s Korner, at the above address.