My daughters father left the country. I do not know when he left the country,the last time she saw him was for 5 minutes 5 days before Christmas, he called to speak to her on new Years Eve and he didn't indicate when or if he was coming back to the United States. We do not have custody established and I have no address and or phone number at this point to contact him. How can I protect my daughter? I want to obtain sole custody of her, but I am told by the local court system that without an address to have him served, there is nothing I can do. I don't want him to come back here and have the ability to try and possibly take her out of the country and have that not be an issue because there is no court order to protect her.

Can anyone help me with what I can or should do?

Of course the system will tell you something, you hire an attorney and file for first a temporary order of custody. Then you follow all of the requried paper work to search for him and if not found, a legal posting and then you basically go ahead with court action. You will need an attorney.