TX child custody laws, procedure for non custodial parent to seek primary custody

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You need to file a request for modification of the custody order with the court that granted the divorce. As it stands, you are not supposed to have the children and should also be paying child support even though they are with you. Right now, you could be charged with parental kidnapping if the other parent really wanted to be vicious.

Discuss the situtation with an attorney right away.

I was in a similar situation.

Bottom line is, you must return the children immediately upon her request because your current order states so. However, if they have lived with you 6 consecutive months, and depending on the situation in which they were given to you for that length of time (her going out of country but you two mutually agreeing to watch the kids would not help much), I believe you could file for an emergency order based on abandonment. I wouldn't recommend this unless she truly is neglecting them...if she still talked to them regularly or visited them, there would not be much justification for an emergency. So if she has contact with them, you can file for modification and wait your turn in line until your court date comes up, in the meantime you will still have to follow your current order.

Oh, and make sure you have, or will immediately, pay the child support you should have been paying. It sux, but it's in the order, so follow it. It'll look bad on you if stop paying just because they've been with you 6 months, you're still defying an existing court order. I've been there, done that, too. It killed me to pay support AND have my kids...b/c I was paying more than TX would have forced me to pay b/c of my own naivety and trusting she would do right by the extra money, and so I put it into the original support order. I'd say never, ever put more on paper. If you can be generous, great, do so off the books.