spring break problems

[awakenlynn]

Ok, I will go in order, or everything will get confusing.

1) On Feb 2-We e-mailed ex dates for spring break 3/11-19.  She said ok.  I read the school calendar and like last year it said early dismissal.
 
2) On the 3rd, she said those dates were fine.

3) On the 14th, we told her we purchased the tickets.  We had looked at the school calendar again and still say the early dismissal note.  I read it and thought it said K-8(the picture quality for the online calendar is autrocious).  So using last year as the precedent, I bought the ticket for the Friday because of the early dismissal.

4)  She never got back to us til yesterday(27th) that there is no early dismissal and therefore she will not put the SD on the flight.  Because school let out at 2:50 and the flight is at 2:05, then she won't put her on the flight.  

It doesnt' matter she didn't mail us the calendar as court ordered, nor does it matter that she didn't tell us school times changed either.  How are we supposed to read her mind.

I am not saying the blame shouldn't fall on me, but why can;t the SD get out of school one hour early to make sure she catches the flight?

Ex says she knows she is being "childish", but she is still "stewing" over the SD first 7 years when my DH was overseas and she disappeared.  So she brings up everything she is still ticked about.  She said the issue isn't SD missing an hour(?) of school, but that we try to get more time than court ordered.  She doens't like it that she counts a whole day, when we pick SD up at 5 or 6 at night.  That is not a whole day to us and we don't count it as such.
We still are supposed to get reasonable visitation, but we don't get anything that isn't specifically written out.  

I am so upset, I made a mistake and because of it, DH may not get to see his daughter.

I called out attorney, but lo and behold.  We have to re-retain him because the money ran out.  He never told us, never sent us a bill or anything.  We called the attorney again today and spoke to his assistant about mailing us a new retainer contract.  She said he isn't taking new clients right now and we need to talk to him directly.  I don't want to lose him as an attorney.  Ex really hates him.  Not sure what to do now.

[Sunshine1]

One question...are you seriously relying solely on her word that school does not get out early?  I would call the school directly and find out for myself.  You can't trust these women and farther than you can spit on them.  What were to happen if say SD missed the flight, they would put her on a new one wouldn't they?  I don't know how the whole flying thing works and visitation...I am praying I will someday though if BM moves away :)...I just know I have heard of that happening.

She is being totally unreasonable with the hour difference and maybe you can kiss her butt and beg her and tell her that you would really appreciate it if she made this one exception and "favor" (magic BM words),and you will in the future quadruple check things before buying the tickets.  I know you would rather swallow razor blades than do this, but it just might work.

[awakenlynn]

I double checked with the school after I received her letter.  I did make a mistake reading the calendar.  We have apologized over and over and over.  

Right now she said the issue isn't pulling SD out of school, it is us going over the court ordered visits.  She gets mad when we tell her that when we pick SD up at her house at 5 pm we will not count that as a full day.  We would compromise at noon, but we think a decent pickup time is 10am.  That is pretty much what it comes down to.  She is so busy being angry about the little girl's first 7 years that my husband wasn't there(She ran away and disappeared and then my husband was transferred overseas--what were his options-put a 3 and 4 year old on an international flight solo?)   She just wants to do what she can to hurt him.

We are getting ready for court.  That is the way it is going to have to be.

[lawless]

What a bummer!  This is a really difficult problem and so unfortunate that you would have to waste time and money going to court.  

This might sound like a really stupid question but I travel a lot for work and change flights all the time.  Have you tried changing the flight?   I also miss flights due to traffic in LA fairly often and they just put me on the next flight.  The most I have ever paid to change a ticket is a $100 change fee even when they say they cannot be changed.  

This seems much much cheaper than attorneys and court.  Or maybe you mean that you are going to court over the "definition of a full day".

Lawless

[awakenlynn]

We have thought about changing flights, but there is nothing later that day and the next day we would have to pay about $600 for the ticket difference plus the $100.

Our court order does not define the day.  We have specific visitation such as the whole spring break for example.  We also have reasonable visitation undefined.

So now it is a waiting game.  If she doesn't put the little girl on the flight, we take her to small claims court and see if we can get reimbursed and then back to family court(where we are heading anyways) and get the visit made up.  We will be on pins and needles waiting til next week.