I consulted Jeanne about getting a divorce, even before I decided to go ahead with it. One of my biggest concerns was about child custody. She explained to me that Florida law requires timesharing instead of assigned custody with a primary parent. The idea is for children to spend half their time with each parent.
To me, that meant my child would have two homes, and I would see less of my daughter than I wanted. It was something that I wasn’t prepared to do.
Because of that, I didn’t do anything to proceed with a divorce for another two years. Then it reached the point where trying to stay married wasn’t working either. I went to see Jeanne again and this time decided to move ahead.
In hiring Jeanne, I wanted to have an expert on my side, someone who could see things from my perspective. I knew she was knowledgeable and I trusted her completely. Jeanne is empathetic and professional. She has the ability to explain things in a matter of fact way that is also sympathetic.
I wanted to make the divorce as easy as possible on everyone concerned and have it be as amicable as it could possibly be. As a mother, my biggest focus was on taking care of my daughter. I knew Jeanne would respect my wishes. In fact, the key for her is “Let’s do this with the least amount of anger and confrontation as possible and think about what’s best for your child.”
At the same time, I knew that Jeanne could be tough if necessary. I knew she was in my corner.
The question for me was how to make timesharing manageable. Jeanne had examples of parenting plans for me to look at and showed me an actual calendar. My husband agreed to everything that I asked for in the parenting plan. We decided to minimize switching our daughter from house to house and follow a model where she spends every other week with each parent.
During a divorce, you’re so anxious and stressed that sometimes you don’t even know what to ask. Jeanne helped me think of things that I hadn’t considered, like the fact that I needed to write a new will after the divorce.
Because our divorce was amicable, I believe it’s possible now for my ex-husband and I to be flexible. My daughter doesn’t hear her parents being angry.
I feel that I came out of my divorce with everything that I had hoped for.
