Offer Your Advice

STORY #1

My name is Matt Marcenelle and I currently reside in Savannah, Ga. On June 1st of last summer, I came home from work only to realize that my wife, with her parents assistance, had abandoned me and had taken our three
month old baby son with her.

In the seven months since that time, my local
neighborhood and my wife's (former) friends have rallied around in support of me after all of the facts have emerged and the lies that she propogated were disproven. Much to my chagrin, I have come to realize that, even though I was the one abandoned, my rights are limited in seeing my son.
My wife has since gone back to Allentown, Pa with Nicholas where she is living with her parents. I have retained an attorney and have slowly begun to grope my way through this process with very little knowledge of what I am supposed to do.

I initially was going to give my wife the divorce along
with primary custody of our son since I was advised by my attorney that in order for me to get primary custodial rights, I would need an act of God.

Since then, I have re-thought my position and would like to fight for primary custody of my son for the sole reason that I truly believe that I would be doing him an injustice by not fighting for him. My questions are as follows:

1) Is there any fathers' rights organization in the Savannah, GA area?
2) If so, I would like to know who I can talk to here so that I can get involved.
3) How long can a mother claim that she is breast feeding an
infant?
4) What do I have to do in order to gain primary custody of my son?

As it stands now, my attorney has filed a temporary visitation order in which I have the standard visitation rights as the state of Georgia dictates. My only requirement is to pay 17% of my gross income every month
for child support in order to enable me to do this. This would be well and good except that my wife is currently residing in Allentown, Pa and has no intention of coming back. Savannah is almost 1000 miles away from Allentown
and there is no way that I can transfer up there at this time. I need to keep my job in order to pay the child support for my child who is too far for me to see on a regular basis and my wife is supposedly within her rights
to do this. Call me crazy but it just doesn't seem right or fair to either me or my son for her to not have to live closer to me or even meet me half way during my visitations. If there is anyone that is familiar with thelaws of Georgia or is an attorney down here, I would greatly appreciate your
help and advice. This is an example of a good man getting totally screwed by bad people.

Signed,
Matt Marcenelle

STORY # 2

I have a problem and I know I can't be the only woman with this problem. I know that you are an organization that is working to help dads gain legal rights as far as their children are concerned, so I would like you to consider this situation:

In 1991 I had a child while I was still legally married to my ex-husband. He is not the father, we had been having problems and were going through a divorce at the time. Due to antiquated laws based on Lord Mansfield's Rule, I had to give my son the surname of my estranged husband, even though he was not the father. I had to put "unknown" on his birth certificate. My son's father has always been a very integral part of his life. We are not together, but remain the best of friends. I also remain friends with my ex-husband and we have children together. He is also very present in his children's lives. My problem is, my misnamed son's father had a stroke a year and a half ago and it has become very important to us to have his name changed and his father named on amended birth certificate. My son's father is last in his lineage line, and if my son does not receive his name, then the line will end there. This is not a money issue, as my son receives support from his father. I know that you all lobby for fathers' rights and I believe such laws based on Lord Mansfield's rule need to be changed. I don't believe this would increase rates of illegitimacy, rather it would ensure that fathers are able to be recognized by society regardless of the mistake of the mother.

Any help or advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Signed,
Paprika Spice

TO REPLY CONTACT:
Anthony Vitiello:dads@dadsrparentstoo.com (925) 275-6413
John Valentine:dads@dadsrparentstoo.com (925) 275-0200
Matt Marcenelle: matthew.r.marcenelle@pfizer.com
Paprika Spice: spaprika@hotmail.com