Can I go get my children?

My childrens father and I were never married,there has been no court involvement at all.I let him keep the children for an agreed upon period,in order to get on my feet.He moved and would not give me an address,now I have the address,and want to go get my kids,he lives in florida,I am in tennessee.Can he stop me from taking them? I am desperate!Can I get them and then file for custody?Please help

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by verysad:
[b]My childrens father and I were never married,there has been no court involvement at all.I let him keep the children for an agreed upon period,in order to get on my feet.He moved and would not give me an address,now I have the address,and want to go get my kids,he lives in florida,I am in tennessee.Can he stop me from taking them? I am desperate!Can I get them and then file for custody?Please help[/b]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


First question would be is his name on the birth certificates?

#2. Did you give him guardianship of any type? or even a Power of Attorney?

#3. How was he able tomove the children out of state and enroll them in school?
If his name is not on the birth ceritificates then I do not think he can do anything about you going and getting the children, I may be wrong, not sure about the interstate laws regarding these type situations... IAAL or LB will know more about that..

he is only on one birth certificate,we both lived in florida at the time of the agreement,i had to move for work and family related reasons,but the agreement was only verbal between him and I no legal agreements at all.My daughters are only 3 and 5,do you know of any reason I can`t get them now?I just got his address,its killing me being away from them

[MySonsMom]

If there are no court orders in place than both you and the Father have equal rights to the children. What you need to do is get an attorney and file for custody. How long has he been in FL? Let's hope that he didn't establish residency there. But until there are orders in place, he has every right to the children as you do. So he WAS able to move them and keep them. Just if you were to pick them up, you would have no obligation to return them. GET AN ATTORNEY AND FILE FOR CUSTODY. And pray to God that he hasn't already done so. Good luck!

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*There is no love, like the unconditional love of a Mother*

-I am not an Attorney, any advice given is strictly advice-