Fog is lifting for my german wife

[PortlandDad]

BR:
For the most part, my kids do not want to live with her. The sole exception is my S17, who turns into S18 this week, might chose to live with her because she is much more permissive than I am. He started smoking when he was 16 and my W provided him the cigarettes. They kept that a secret from me until about a year ago. She would also go check him out of school whenever he called and directly contributed to him dropping out of school and settling for a GED instead of a Diploma. When the separation/divorce plan was originally being hatched between my W and the OM, S17 was going to accompany her to Germany and live there for a while. He has often said that "His mom was his best friend". If he were given the choice, I'm pretty sure he would chose to live with his mom if she were here in the US.

My S13 and D12 would both chose to live with me. D12 hates her mother, and S13, while he does have feelings for her, he is resentful that she voluntarily removed herself from his life to be with the OM. He is still somewhat close to his mom, but he is very angry with her, too.

KK: Knowing what I know about her and her psychology, I think it would be in her best interest to keep this out of the hands of a judge. That gives me hope that she will see some reason and not fight the custody issue. Of course, she has not announced the return yet, so i can only think that this is an attempted covert operation on her part to pawn the whole separation off as an extended sabbatical. Of course, I will be at the airport on the day she arrives (or a PI with a camera will be) to see who is holding her hand when she gets off the plane. I half-way hope she is foolish enough to bring the OM with her. Having those photos would give me some serious leverage if she wants to get 'scrappy'.

Of course, she could surprise me with something else completely. She has been known to bring something out from left field when she is painted into a corner. I certainly won't under-estimate what she is capable of.