My child's mother just up and left me with 2 kids. She has been gone for 3 months and all I know is that she is in Florida. What do I do to make sure that she cannot just show up one day and try to take them from me. I really cannot afford a lawyer right now and am worried about that. I live in Indiana.

Go to the Family Courthouse and file for custody. Sometimes they have the papers to file for custody online. Just Google your city's name and family courthouse and call them. That is what I did and they gave me a website where the forms were. It is going to cost me $300 to file for custody of my daughter, but there may be a sliding scale in your state, I am not sure. I am looking into it for my case. I am doing mine without a laywer. Now about serving the mother the papers. I am not sure what that process is. My daughter's father is in jail, so that is how I finally found him to serve him the papers. Good luck. I am sure that some other members who know real legal advice will post soon. Hope everything works out for you.

You need to file for divorce. As part of the divorce, you include a request for SOLE legal and physical custody.

You will have to show a good faith attempt to contact her to give notice of your filing.

Hopefully, she won't fight it, but if she does, she will probably retain some rights including visitation.