Barbthepoet
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Texas
My husband's ex wife left our county/city to take another job, abandoning the children. They have a court order for joint custody that stipulates we have the kids one month, and she has them one month, back and forth. In August 2004, she moved and the children have been in continuous possession of my husband and me since then. Their mother sees them one day (sometimes 2 days) every 2 weeks. She has paid us some child support, but it is speratic, and at her convenience. Before she moved away, her and my husband (father of the children) had a verbal agreement that she would pay $500.00 a month child support. She did not want to go to a lawyer and ammend the divorce/custody/child support agreement, and unfortunately my husband agreed to this in hopes of "keeping the peace". Since she has moved away, it has been a nightmare to get the child support from her that she agreed on. We have filed a claim with the Attorney General's office, but nothing has happened with that yet.
Prior to the custody arrangement they have now, the children used to live with their mother and my husband paid her $500.00 a month faithfully, the amount even being more than the court ordered.
These kids are great kids, and since they have lived with us, have found peace and stability that they did not have prior to this point. They deserve all that we can give them, and their mother should have to take responsibility for them as well.
We do not have a lot of money, and unfortunately now we are at the point that we have to seek an attorney to get this taken care of legally. I guess what I need to know is if there are low-cost attorney's, and if we have a good chance of retaining custody of the kids since they have been in our continuous possession since August 2004 when their mother abandoned them.
Any feedback anyone has would be sooooo very much appreciated.
My husband's ex wife left our county/city to take another job, abandoning the children. They have a court order for joint custody that stipulates we have the kids one month, and she has them one month, back and forth. In August 2004, she moved and the children have been in continuous possession of my husband and me since then. Their mother sees them one day (sometimes 2 days) every 2 weeks. She has paid us some child support, but it is speratic, and at her convenience. Before she moved away, her and my husband (father of the children) had a verbal agreement that she would pay $500.00 a month child support. She did not want to go to a lawyer and ammend the divorce/custody/child support agreement, and unfortunately my husband agreed to this in hopes of "keeping the peace". Since she has moved away, it has been a nightmare to get the child support from her that she agreed on. We have filed a claim with the Attorney General's office, but nothing has happened with that yet.
Prior to the custody arrangement they have now, the children used to live with their mother and my husband paid her $500.00 a month faithfully, the amount even being more than the court ordered.
These kids are great kids, and since they have lived with us, have found peace and stability that they did not have prior to this point. They deserve all that we can give them, and their mother should have to take responsibility for them as well.
We do not have a lot of money, and unfortunately now we are at the point that we have to seek an attorney to get this taken care of legally. I guess what I need to know is if there are low-cost attorney's, and if we have a good chance of retaining custody of the kids since they have been in our continuous possession since August 2004 when their mother abandoned them.
Any feedback anyone has would be sooooo very much appreciated.