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When my oldest child, Sharvahn, was five, she used her allowance to buy me a Hallmark Mother’s Day card. As I waited outside the store, she chose a card festooned with purple flowers. When I opened it, my heart melted. “To a young woman on her graduation,” it read. The best card ever.

This Mother’s Day can’t come and go quickly enough for me. There won’t be any cards, any kisses, and any “Pop-Tart” breakfast for me. I am a mother of four children – two boys and two girls between the ages of three and 11. But for the last nine months, I am a mother of no children.

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My ex-husband, Saren Azer, abducted our four Canadian-born children in August 2015 after taking them on what was to be a two-week holiday in Europe. I had tried to block the trip. But the Canadian courts overruled my mother’s instincts and allowed the children to travel abroad with him. He never brought them home.

Within days of the abduction, Interpol issued a “wanted person” Red Notice for Saren and a “missing persons” Yellow Notice for my children. But they’re not missing anymore. We know where they are. Saren has illegally taken them back to the country where he was born, Iran. The Canadian government knows this too.