Changing Custody After the Children Move In With You

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Washington

Currently my significant other has had his two older children living with us, one has been living with us for 9 months, the other for 5 months. They used to live with their mother however last summer one decided they wanted to live with us during the next year and the mother agreed. after 4 months the mother was kicked from her home by her then boyfriend and moved back to our state, She left the other child in our care, for what she said was a couple of months, 5 months have now passed. He was still playing child support for 4 of those 5 months, He contacted the child support office on the fifth month and got child support put on hold. We've sent in paper work stating we have the children in our physical care. The child support office said once they receive it they will stop child support payments.

Currently the mother has no income, no house of her own (living with her parents, newest boyfriend, and daughter she doesn't have custody of.) in a tiny home with no room for the other children. She isn't employed, and not really doing anything to improve her situation.

What are the chances we can get custody of the full children? We're not gonna ask for back child support, and of course she'd have full visitation on weekends, school breaks, and every other holiday.

He has a pretty good chance, actually - they've lived there for 9 and 5 months respectively, yes?

Have him read here

He can Google and find examples of parenting plans, too.

yes they have, she's had a couple weekends with them, and 4 days during spring break but other then that they've been here for time for 9 months for one and 5 months for the other. When she had them in her care, He also made sure he had them every visitation, every chance she would let him, He drove to and from the state where she lived for a year to pick them up, never missed a child support payment, and has always been very actively involved in the kids lives.

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Quoting shinystepmom

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yes they have, she's had a couple weekends with them, and 4 days during spring break but other then that they've been here for time for 9 months for one and 5 months for the other. When she had them in her care, He also made sure he had them every visitation, every chance she would let him, He drove to and from the state where she lived for a year to pick them up, never missed a child support payment, and has always been very actively involved in the kids lives.

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What he might want to do is wait until he hits the 6 month mark and then file. It will be exceedingly difficult for Mom to successfully fight that.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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What he might want to do is wait until he hits the 6 month mark and then file. It will be exceedingly difficult for Mom to successfully fight that.

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i agree, that's one reason why we've waited this long, only two more weeks until the 6 month mark. We do worry she might try to take the children for a visit and not bring them back however, once she finds out child support is no longer going to her because we've had it stopped, but we're hoping to resolve this as quietly and cleanly as possible.

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Quoting shinystepmom

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i agree, that's one reason why we've waited this long, only two more weeks until the 6 month mark. We do worry she might try to take the children for a visit and not bring them back however, once she finds out child support is no longer going to her because we've had it stopped, but we're hoping to resolve this as quietly and cleanly as possible.

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I do think Dad has an excellent chance, assuming you haven't forgotten to tell us something.