It is a pretty bad situation, 3.5+ years of separation (divorce finalized last summer), and it just had progressively gotten worse. But I think for the most part the really horrific stuff and the non-stop dealing with police and CPS is over. Everyone (police, CPS, courts, etc.) has caught on to her but so far nothing stops her from still creating problems. You would think losing your kids, coming up 2 years since custody change, being found in contempt, etc. would stop but it is obvious in so many ways she is solely just out to get me.
I do have an attorney. My attorney sees it as I do which is at the very basic level, their mom has no parenting decisions and would not need to sign off. Then of course now including the protection order. But everyone interprets orders differently. An example is with their school. They allowed her to go to school on her non-parenting days, and fully knew some of her bad actions, essentially giving her extra parenting days. If they were in daycare she couldn't just go and spend time with them. My attorney says she isn't allowed to be there on her non-parenting days. With this new protection order, the school still is misinterpreting things but the end result is they now at least are not allowing her there on her non-parenting days. If she wasn't doing her bad actions I wouldn't care if she was there, but she isn't stopping.
Another thing to add is that she has multiple times withheld the boys for me. Once it was the final act before the court changed custody, physically snatching one of the boys while my then g/f, now wife, was watching him while he was home from school sick. She walked in and ran off with him while he was still in his PJs, not even socks or shoes. Last winter she was held in contempt for not returning them from one of her days, even keeping them out of school for several days. She only returned them while my attorney and I were in court, ex parte, with papers that included an arrest warrant. And several other times when she had custody and she wiped the boys up into frenzies not wanting to go with me.
Our son(s) not having valid passports would be a good way to delay any chance of her taking off with them. But two issues. While her parents really don't know much about all that has happened, they overall are very much against her and know she has physiological issues. I would like to take the boys myself to see them. I also have remarried, a woman from Colombia, and we do want to travel to Colombia whereas now we can't.
I was planning on submitting for a passport and seeing what happens. But was hoping if anyone knew for certain how it should pan out. I do plan on keeping the passports in a safety deposit box, but I could see her also somehow having passports reissued and sent to her, or something else. It is probably something difficult for her to do but she has tricked other agencies into approval for nearly impossible to get approval for. Like an issue with the IRS and our last joint filing, which was in our divorce trial, approved at trial, with no objections from her. We owed money that year and after trial, she filed for incident spouse relief and they approved it meaning she doesn't have to pay anything, I have to pay it all. I am appealing but it is a local family court issue if anything and was already at trial.