Hi everyone,
My husband's ex-wife sent their 3 kids (13, 9 & 6) to live in NZ with her parents in August while she stayed in Australia until moving there herself in October (they're all NZ citizens including my husband). Conveniently, this all happened just before our wedding so his kids were unable to attend.
For background: They divorced last year, however, were separated for 3 years before that as she cheated on him. We married in October this year after being together 2 years.
My husband works FIFO overseas 5 weeks away and 1 home, so when she told us she was moving them, we couldn't take the kids (not that she gave us a the option) as I work full-time and he is overseas. There are no family court orders or official parenting plan in place. The original verbal agreement was that we would have the kids every 2nd weekend when my husband was working in Australia and then on his week home when he started working overseas.
She has continued to spread all kinds of lies to people and just generally being manipulative and nasty (telling people the kids hate us and want nothing to do with us which we know is completely untrue!). We pay her a significant amount each week in private child support and she still demands more (she thinks he earns heaps of money and he doesn't - trust me!), even though we never see the kids because they're now overseas, usually using the kids against us or as pawns. She claims to have gone to mediation with the kids, however, my husband was never notified or offered the opportunity to attend.
What are our options under Family Law to get a custody of children plan in place now that they've moved? My husband is planning on getting work back in Australia soon (there has been no work in his industry here for nearly a year - not our choice!) so we have more options. We're feeling very helpless and deflated and would appreciate any guidance.
My husband's ex-wife sent their 3 kids (13, 9 & 6) to live in NZ with her parents in August while she stayed in Australia until moving there herself in October (they're all NZ citizens including my husband). Conveniently, this all happened just before our wedding so his kids were unable to attend.
For background: They divorced last year, however, were separated for 3 years before that as she cheated on him. We married in October this year after being together 2 years.
My husband works FIFO overseas 5 weeks away and 1 home, so when she told us she was moving them, we couldn't take the kids (not that she gave us a the option) as I work full-time and he is overseas. There are no family court orders or official parenting plan in place. The original verbal agreement was that we would have the kids every 2nd weekend when my husband was working in Australia and then on his week home when he started working overseas.
She has continued to spread all kinds of lies to people and just generally being manipulative and nasty (telling people the kids hate us and want nothing to do with us which we know is completely untrue!). We pay her a significant amount each week in private child support and she still demands more (she thinks he earns heaps of money and he doesn't - trust me!), even though we never see the kids because they're now overseas, usually using the kids against us or as pawns. She claims to have gone to mediation with the kids, however, my husband was never notified or offered the opportunity to attend.
What are our options under Family Law to get a custody of children plan in place now that they've moved? My husband is planning on getting work back in Australia soon (there has been no work in his industry here for nearly a year - not our choice!) so we have more options. We're feeling very helpless and deflated and would appreciate any guidance.