Hi folks!
All the stress caught up to me on Thursday, and I spent Friday & Saturday on my back with some sort of flu. However, that is not the good news.
The good news is that on Sunday my ex called, and let me know that her and the kids are living with her mother in Lancaster. Not good, because her mother, is a practicing J-Dub, though not a strong member. Her mother has been known to attend her grandchildren's birthday parties, and my ex's Thanksgiving & Christmas parties. I picked up the phone, and upon hearing her voice, immediately began, mentally, counting backwards from ten to keep myself calm. She stated that the company she was working for was going out of business on January first, so she had found a new job in Lancaster, and decided that until she got a new place would live with her mother for a month. She said that the move was necessary because of that, and because of the rent increases she had been getting at her old apartment. She then gave me her mother's address to send the child support. That was it. No apology. No nothing for the pain and stress she put me through. For losing my weekend with the kids. Nothing.
I talked to my son, and daughter. They are OK with the move. My son understood why the move had to be made. He's going to be 17, so I would expect that. My daughter was still upset. She's 13, and still in that early teen transition. She's down because she lost all her friends. Though she knows a couple of girls that live in her grandmother's apartment, so the transition won't be too hard. My son is going to have a more difficult time. He seldom went up to his grandmother's, unlike my daughter. SO he is going to have a real difficult time.
Based on this I am leaning towards not going after my ex, and getting custody. I just don't want to put my kids through another trauma of having to readjust to another school, especially a school in the City of Los Angeles. They will be better off up there.
After I finished talking to my kids, I asked to speak with their mother again. She reluctantly came to the phone. I told her, in no uncertain terms, that I had every right to petition the court to have her custody rights pulled, but that I has not going to put the kids through another trauma. I told her that she will have to bring the kids down to my office at 5:30 (I am scheduled to have the kids this week). She said that she couldn't because of her work, but that she'll send them down on the commuter train. I wasn't jazzed with it, but they have traveled on it before, and know the ropes.
I then told her that if she does anything out of line with my visitation. If I hear that the kids are being pressured to go to meetings. If I hear that Elders are coming up to visit her mother, I will petition the court for custody. I told her that the events of the past couple of weeks are on file with the court (my attorney suggested that I do this). I told her in no uncertain terms that if this were to happen again, I would have no problem with having her arrested on kidnapping charges.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I really appreciate them. One good thing. A good friend of mine is a rehabilitation home director, and some of the men in the home are working for Honeybaked Ham (those of your in California know of what I speak). As part of their compensation they have been given a bunch of hams, and he gave one to us. It is going to be a very merry Christmas, indeed! I have my kids, and I will be cooking ham with all the fixings for Christmas Eve dinner (I take the kids back to Lancaster on Christmas morning).
