McMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon woman who won custody of her 3-year-old son in an international dispute with her husband says she has no way to bring the boy back from Greece, where he is living with his father.
Nancy Wilhelm Karatzas says she was granted custody and her husband was told to bring their son, Vasileios, back to Oregon after a lengthy ordeal involving lawyers in both countries and a trial in Greek court.
But she said there is no agency that enforces such a judgment, leaving her waiting for her husband to comply with the law.
"I just want my son back," said Karatzas, who grew up in Sheridan and now lives in Polk County.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The unknown is the hardest," she said. "Not knowing when I'll see Vasilei again."
Karatzas never dreamed she would be involved in an international custody battle someday. When a mutual friend introduced her to the Greek man who would become her husband, all she foresaw was a happy future.
They married in the United States in 2005. He was a legal alien, and his status assured by his marriage to an American.
Their son was born in 2006. They named him after his paternal grandfather.
"We wanted to do some cultural things in honor of his being Greek," Karatzas said. "We were teaching him both English and Greek."
She described her son as a happy, easy-going little boy who enjoyed playing ball or spending time with his two older sisters, who are from Karatzas' previous marriage.
When he was 3 months old, they took him to Greece to be baptized. Parents and child traveled to Greece again when the boy's namesake died.
Then, on Sept. 10, 2008, Karatzas' husband and son left on a 20-day trip to visit Vasileios' grandmother and other relatives in Greece. Because of her work as a nurse, Karatzas couldn't go herself.
"But I would have never put him on that plane if I knew he wasn't coming back," she said.
Two days before they were due to fly home, her husband phoned, saying Vasileios had an earache and couldn't fly, so he was postponing their return until Oct. 18. Then, in mid-October, he called again, saying they would be staying in Greece for good.
"I said, just bring my son back. And he said no," she recalled.
Karatzas turned to the Internet, desperately looking for information.
She called the U.S. State Department's Office of Children's Issues, which transferred her to Homeland Security, and later she called on Oregon's congressional delegation.
People were sympathetic, she said, but their assistance was limited mostly to referring her to other places she could call for information. They also suggested she file a missing child report with local police.
Karatzas used the Internet to look for a lawyer specializing in international child custody cases. She found two in Oregon.
When she called the first one, she learned her husband had consulted with the same attorney before he left.
She said she discovered her husband had quit his job, sold his car, emptied a bank account they did not share, and taken important documents, such as their child's birth certificate and their marriage certificate.
Because the first lawyer had worked with her husband, Karatzas sought out the other Oregon lawyer with international custody experience.
The attorney helped her work through a Hague Convention application, the international paperwork required of parents hoping to bring back their children from overseas.
She had to collect all pertinent documents — including new copies of her son's birth certificate — and get statements from character witnesses, including her doctors and her ex-husband, who is the father of her teenage daughters.
By December, three months after her husband left with their son, all her documents had been completed and sent to Greek authorities. Karatzas traveled to Greece for the court proceedings and was able to visit her son, who had already forgotten much of his English.
The Greek court proceedings were different than a U.S. court, and lawyers and the judge questioned the witnesses without allowing her to defend herself against disparaging things said by her husband and mother-in-law.
"They said I wasn't a good mother. I think they would have said anything they needed to say to keep me from getting him," she said.
But the court considered the evidence and ruled in her favor. Her husband has 30 days to file an appeal of the June 1 ruling, which could delay the process another five or six months.
Meanwhile, she is working extra shifts to earn money for her legal and travel expenses.
"It's amazing how many people are out there, dealing with this," she said.
___
Information from: News-Register, http://www.newsregister.com