Here is the story... I was never married to my ex when she gave birth to my two children (twins) When I first took her to court for custody (7 years ago) she was given physical custody as she was still a minor and living with her parents. We had joint custody. Last year my ex had moved out of her parent's house and gotten married. Her husband is in the reserves and he had gone over seas for 6 months. In that time she destroyed the apartment they were living in and every other weekend she told me that she was taking the kids and moving to another state. I had called CPS on the home conditions 3 times for them to only come out once. This home was a mess, there was trash all over the place, old food everywhere, poop on the walls, and poop in paper tossed on the floor no room to walk the kids could not even get into their bed room due to the mess. And when CPS came in they gave her a week to clean (and she did) and than they closed the case. After that my ex had gotten rather upset about this and her and her new husband moved to NC. I was informed of this when we had mediation for visitation. (as she knew I was already taking her to court for custody and the judge suggest to have a visitation agreement until the custody hearing) At mediation she did not give me her new address or anything, just said that she is moving to NC about 3 hours away from where we are living now. Not even 2 weeks after mediation she had moved to NC, she had taken the kids out of school and left them here in VA with her parents and than a week later enrolled them to their new school on NC. She had moved a little over 3 months ago. Still to date she has never given me her address or the school that the kids are going to. As I know there is an extremely bad mold problem in the home where the children are primarily living, and the home is a mess and after 3 months they still have not unpacked. When I have asked for the new address and the school name she tells me that she does not have to report to me and if she wants to than she can give it to me, but because we meet in the middle to pick up and drop off the kids she will not give me this information. As my ex knows from when she was living in VA and the children had gone to two schools in two years living here (now they are on their 3rd school in two years) that I was not happy with the fact of how many days they missed school and how often they were late. (the had missed 29 days of school and were late 70 days) So I have a feeling that she has not changed with bringing the kids to school and that is why she does not want me to know what school they are going to. Now on top of that my kids have told me that their new step dad hits them when ever they are not listening, now I have had the problem before with my ex and her parents hitting the kids with objects to get them to listen and now my kids coward and run when they don't do what they are told to. And to top everything off my ex had lied to the courts for our child support hearing stating that she can not work because both children had an illness that requires her to be home. After that hearing I had gotten a copy of their medical records after fighting with my ex to find out who their Dr. is and there is nothing in the records stating that they have any medical problems.
I am sorry for the long post, but see because of everything that is going on I want to get custody of my children, they need to be in a better home, a clean and safe home where they attend school and they have friends. And the worst thing is I know that I need a lawyer but I can not afford to pay $3,000 or even $400 upfront to have a lawyer at court. I have spoken to several lawyers and all they tell me is that I have done all the work for them already, but they will not give me any further advice. Please if there is somebody who knows what else I need to do or somebody who has been though something similar please let me know what else I have to do. I am really concerned for my children and their safety.
I am sorry for the long post, but see because of everything that is going on I want to get custody of my children, they need to be in a better home, a clean and safe home where they attend school and they have friends. And the worst thing is I know that I need a lawyer but I can not afford to pay $3,000 or even $400 upfront to have a lawyer at court. I have spoken to several lawyers and all they tell me is that I have done all the work for them already, but they will not give me any further advice. Please if there is somebody who knows what else I need to do or somebody who has been though something similar please let me know what else I have to do. I am really concerned for my children and their safety.
