Since my divorce two years ago when, my wife withheld my mail, which contained my summons for our 2nd hearing after the first had been postponed because she had “told her lawyer that everything was going good.” So he told me the date would be postponed two months and if all was still well she would let him know a they would dismiss it but the court date would be set by the judge later that day. After your first summons to court, the next ones aren’t signed for and are mailed to you. I was working 3rd shift during covid, covering a 14-hour shift and driving 3 hours round trip, not getting home till 11 am or later every day. She then proceeded to change the court hearing without my knowledge because i didnt have a lawyer and never seen our mail, she would only give me a bill when it would come in when I got home. So long story short I did not show up for court which made me look like a deadbeat, she was awarded full custody and immediately jerked them out of school and moved to her home town 10 hours away and enrolled them in school. I got the hearing thrown out by proving that I never received my mail, however during covid it took 8 months to get the new hearing rescheduled and by this time the judge refused to make her pull the kids out of school after half a year in attendance and allowed her to keep living there out of state. But did award me joint custody just not residential custody. I was to get two weekends a month we were to meet halfway on Friday an they were to be back there on Sunday. During the first year she with held my visitations 4 times and would not allow me to communicate with my daughters regularly, before I could file after the fourth occurrence she filed saying visitation was to hard on the girls with travel time. So the judge sent us to mediation and we agreed that I would travel to Arkansas the first weekend an keep the girls in a hotel room and drop them off Monday morning at school which causes me to miss two days a month of work to travel there an back. And the third weekend, we meet halfway, and they come home with me for the weekend. I also got more weeks in the s an a reduced child support of 150 less than I was paying which does not come close to covering my weekend in Arkansas. The end of October she again started to withhold my calls to my girls and my first weekend in November when i showed up at the school to pick them up she had called them out of school an left town with them that day. Cops will not assist with an out of state divorce decree My third weekend of the month which was the week of Thanksgiving she calls an tells me that the girls will not be in Memphis at the last minute taking my whole week of thanksgiving with the girls. And the. When I notified her of my intentions to do my visitation on the 1st weekend of December, I said that I would be wasting my time and that I would not be getting my Christmas vacation with them either. An would not discuss with me anymore except in court. Had to use the last of my savings which was my kids Christmas money and borrow from people that you don’t want to borrow from just to get a lawyer to file emergency visitation hearings to be sure i got them at Christmas. Had a hearing her lawyer an my lawyer talked with the judge and verified that I would get them for Christmas and the remaining issues of withholding an parental alienation would be addressed at a further court date in March. Now she has again with held my visitation Jan 19th. Now I have to come up with the rest of my lawyers fee before March along with fixing my water pump an timing chain on my car that just went out.
