Alces C Scotland

No Man's Land: a Father's Fight to Gain and Maintain Sole Custody of His Children Alces C Scotland

Publisher Marketing: No man's land explores the issues of custody, gender bias in the court system and the difficulties and issues of single parenting. Central to the book is the true story of a single father. His world as he knew it ceased to exist when his pregnant wife fled to another state with his three minor children. The court system did little to help him and for a while it seemed she got away with it. He was faced with three options. He could just let her have her way with the possibility of never seeing his children again. He could let them remain in the new state and fight for visitation. With great risk to himself, he could fight for his children. He chose the latter. He secured their return and subsequently got custody of them. A few weeks after, he was also raising his newborn baby. Single fatherhood was hard on its own but, as though it was not enough, he faced continual attacks from his estranged wife, a biased justice system and an uncaring supervisor at work. He eventually came to the point of giving up the very thing he had fought so hard for. He found out that when life suddenly becomes chaotic it is hard and sometimes impossible to find the balance in order to continue moving forward. For him balance came when he learnt to give up his expectations and to look for hope in God and faith in areas previously unexplored. As he willingly gave up life as he knew it and settled down to enjoying a new life and experiences with his children and with his faith in God, only then did he begin to take control of his life even if he had to do it in No Man's Land.