Hello. My name is Chris and I am inquiring about advice regarding my partners son. She has been struggling with custody for her son since his Father gained custody of him 3 years ago in California. He moved to Prescott AZ and she came out here as well to persue her visitations and court dates.
She had moved to Colorado and during the last Mediation was givin the order to visit her son once a month in an attempt to regain consistency in her son's life. The hope was that this would be a beginning to establishing more consistant time with her son. This visitation agreement was to be revisited again in January 2006 for her to gain even more time with her son. She decided that she didn't want to live so far away from him and moved back to Arizona to make it better. It turns out that she doesn't have an understanding because the once a month visits were suppose to be a temporary stepping stone and instead it turned into a permanent order.
Circumstances have changed drastically as the Father separated from his wife and didn't have a place to go. She offered the father an opportunity to move in with her and her girlfriend at the time. They lived together for approximately 3 months. She and her girlfriend broke up a little over a month ago and a decision ended up being made for them to let go of the lease on the apartment. She moved in with me and we offered for the Father to come stay and we could get a bigger place but he refused. He is still trying to work out things with his ex wife and visits Prescott often. He stated that he was going to get a place of his own for him and his son.
My partner has been very happy to have her son in her life but lives very fearfully because at any given moment in time--the Father could take her son and she would be stuck with the same once a month visits that she had before. Her son has been staying with us during the week and going with his Father on the weekend. Today--he didn't bring her son and we were worried that he was going to skip out--although he did call later and he did take her son to school so he is here and we will pick him up.
The questions that I have are regarding this new development in their situation and if it gives her an opportunity to ask for more parental rights and what would be the best way to go about it? Also--When she went to pick up the rest of her things she discovered that the court documents and papers that she had been collecting over the past three years are gone--she doesn't know if the Father took them or her ex girlfriend but this scares her too because all the documenting of discrepancies and letters and phonecalls are gone. How does she go about atleast regaining the court documentation of orders and such?
She gets very frustrated with the system and it is overwhelming as well. We don't have money and are working to create a more stable environment everyday for her son. I am looking for some direction of empowerment and assistance to help get her pointed in the right direction of the steps she needs to take. She lives in the fear that her son is going to be yanked out of her life again and she feels that she is powerless to do anything to fix it.
Please forward any advice that you may have to offer.
Thank you,
Chris
She had moved to Colorado and during the last Mediation was givin the order to visit her son once a month in an attempt to regain consistency in her son's life. The hope was that this would be a beginning to establishing more consistant time with her son. This visitation agreement was to be revisited again in January 2006 for her to gain even more time with her son. She decided that she didn't want to live so far away from him and moved back to Arizona to make it better. It turns out that she doesn't have an understanding because the once a month visits were suppose to be a temporary stepping stone and instead it turned into a permanent order.
Circumstances have changed drastically as the Father separated from his wife and didn't have a place to go. She offered the father an opportunity to move in with her and her girlfriend at the time. They lived together for approximately 3 months. She and her girlfriend broke up a little over a month ago and a decision ended up being made for them to let go of the lease on the apartment. She moved in with me and we offered for the Father to come stay and we could get a bigger place but he refused. He is still trying to work out things with his ex wife and visits Prescott often. He stated that he was going to get a place of his own for him and his son.
My partner has been very happy to have her son in her life but lives very fearfully because at any given moment in time--the Father could take her son and she would be stuck with the same once a month visits that she had before. Her son has been staying with us during the week and going with his Father on the weekend. Today--he didn't bring her son and we were worried that he was going to skip out--although he did call later and he did take her son to school so he is here and we will pick him up.
The questions that I have are regarding this new development in their situation and if it gives her an opportunity to ask for more parental rights and what would be the best way to go about it? Also--When she went to pick up the rest of her things she discovered that the court documents and papers that she had been collecting over the past three years are gone--she doesn't know if the Father took them or her ex girlfriend but this scares her too because all the documenting of discrepancies and letters and phonecalls are gone. How does she go about atleast regaining the court documentation of orders and such?
She gets very frustrated with the system and it is overwhelming as well. We don't have money and are working to create a more stable environment everyday for her son. I am looking for some direction of empowerment and assistance to help get her pointed in the right direction of the steps she needs to take. She lives in the fear that her son is going to be yanked out of her life again and she feels that she is powerless to do anything to fix it.
Please forward any advice that you may have to offer.
Thank you,
Chris
