Originally Posted by rickair7777

Tough situation, sorry it happened.

Can't offer any advice, but I can relate a rare "Dad win" story...

Military buddy was doing (post-military) contract work in the middle east.

He was divorced, wife had the kids in the states, economy was down so he was working overseas to make enough money to get ahead while paying off the ex.

His alimony or child support or whichever was based on his current income (due to him having a reduced payment when unemployed, I don't understand it all).

Anyway, his demonic ex suspects he's making more than he's admitting so she actually travels to the middle east to take local legal action to access his pay info (US courts have no jurisdiction of course).

But she makes a biiiig mistake...she brought the two kids. So dude goes to a local lawyer to see about how to handle the pay issue. Lawyer gives him advice on that. And says OBTW... fathers have default child custody in this nation. So lawyer arranges a custody hearing, and based on that freezes the ex's ability to take the kids out of the country pending the hearing. Dude gets automatic full custody, mom visitation at his discretion. Ex is not even allowed to open her trap at the hearing.

Since this was all legal in the jurisdiction, the US courts cannot intervene. Pyscho gets sent home sans kids. Dude allows her to visit (supervised) as often as she's willing to fly out. This goes on for a couple years, and he then negotiates a better deal for custody/support back home, and then returns to the US.