My three sons

[Sorta Scared]

Hello , i am the Father of 3 wonderful boys that i am afraid i will lose if my ex has her way ! I live in Washington state and my ex lives in Oregon.. i started a custody battle over my children this year in the town i live in, all 3 boys were with me at the time and my attorney unfortunately didnt seem to want to fight hard enough.. to make a long story short i the judge gave up jurisdiction to the state of Oregon as 2 of the children lived there more than here.. one has been living with me since June 2003.
 Now i have to fight for all 3 in Oregon , i have heard some really bad things about Oregon law concerning custody etc. my ex is even trying to force my oldest to live with her , although he wants to live with me , she took the 2 youngest from me with the courts help even when the middle child clearly told her he wanted to stay ( he is 6 yrs old).. I am afraid i will lose my children if i lose this custody fight.. she only wants me to see  them 6 weeks in the summer time and every   other year during spring  break..
 I dont know what to do for sure i  know i need to find a GOOD attorney in Portland .
 Any ideas as to  how to approach this problem would be greatly appreciated... i cant lose my sons, they mean the world  to me...

Thanks...

[tjraid18]

 Hi. I'm in Oregon and read your post. Sounds like you've got a steep hill to climb. Sorry to hear your kids are being seperated from each other, on top of everything else. I don't know much about the laws in washington or Oregon. Or anywhere else for that matter. I know how you feel about not wanting to lose your kids though. I have seen that every situation varies from case to case no matter where your at. I've seen some good things happen in some cases in Oregon. I've noticed that older, established attorneys don't like to make waves in thier community and sometimes are not as aggressive as you want them to be. I disagreed with the first attorney I talked to, so I found another. Maybe sometimes younger ones that are family oriented and can see your plight are a little more bold. I guess it's hard to find a really good one. Look for one that you get along with well and like the way they approach the case. I guess I can't give you much advice, but I hope things go well for you. Good luck!!!