Honestly, this kind of shit really messes with my head, now that I understand what it means to be a parent:

For
most of her 34 years, [Maureen’s] life had been typical: She’d been educated in
a small town, married, had three children, divorced; she’d worked as an
EMT and seamstress, never more than a paycheck away from poverty.

Then
it all changed. A rare nerve disease she contracted caused such
paralysis she could no longer care for her children and gave up custody
to her ex-husband. In this vulnerable state, she met a technician at
the hospital where she was being treated, a Syrian named Hisham
Dabbagh. They married shortly after her release, but that union also
ended unhappily a few years later. Bitter divorce proceedings led to
temporary, alternating custody of their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Nadia
_ 30 days at a time for each parent.

During one visitation, Hisham vanished with Nadia, and most likely spirited her overseas.

Now
Maureen was about to step into a universe she had no idea existed: the
covert world of the "snatchback industry," a shadowy subculture in
which former military commandos, spies and bounty hunters are hired to
recover parentally abducted children from hostile, foreign countries.

Read the full AP article.