Hi: I am married to a woman of Russian/German background. She is a US citizen though. She has become increasingly unstable though and has begun talking openly about leaving me and taking our three year old son to Germany to live with her brother. In terms of background, I am a good father, provide love and support for our son, and he clearly loves me (I have about 500 pics to prove it too:) I don't drink, smoke, no criminal record etc. upper-middle class guy who has always provided well for my family. I do not want a divorce and am hoping she changes her mind, but if worst comes to worst, I really want to remain a central part of my son's life. I have no desire to ask for full custody or even right now joint custody where he shuttles back and forth, I respect how hard she works as a Mother, but I do want to be able to visit him on a regular basis and stay closely involved in his life. She really controls him, and I feel like he needs his daddy in his life. Also, if she does slip away to Germany while I am at work, she is still a US citizen (and only US, no dual citizenship), can I get some kind of court order that she return? Assuming all of the above, can she get away with just moving to Germany for an indefinite period and cutting me out of my son's life? I know Mothers get all the favorable treatment, but there must be some limits, right? My thinking is, if I am reasonable in my requests and clearly love my son, that she could end up looking very bad if she were to carry out this scheme. Or, am I pretty much screwed here?

Do your children have passports?

Its only one child, a three year old boy. He does have a US passport and a US birth certificate.

Do you have control over the passport?

I don't, its either in a box in the bureau or somewhere in her purse. It probably would not be difficult to obtain it. She's threatening to leave on April 3rd, once his spring break from pre-school begins.

Sounds like it is time to get a restraining order if she is making threats.

The court can force her to hand over the passport.