The rather unique thing about divorce is that its focus is on the dissolution of personal, individual relationships. The issues that have to be addressed, whether you are resident of Virginia or some other state, hit very close to home and emotions can create a fog that prevents reason from ruling. An attorney with solid years of experience can help maintain a sense of balance to the proceedings.

One of the most sensitive of issues to deal with involves children. Child Custody, child support and visitation matters need to strike a clear balance between what is best for a child of divorce and the rights of both parents. And then there's the matter of enforcement. In cases in which one divorcing spouse from another country absconds with the child, enforcement can take on criminal implications.

We hear about these kinds of cases regularly and there is another today out of Kentucky. Police in the city of Morehead have issued what amounts to an international BOLO, "be on the lookout," for a 4-year old girl. According to the news reports, the child was supposed to have been returned to the custody of her mother by her father on Jan.1, but that didn't happen. She's now gone and her father is suspected of having taken her to his homeland of Mali in West Africa.

The girl's mother and father had been sharing parenting duties under a joint custody agreement as part of their recent divorce. The father, a college history professor in Kentucky, resigned his position over the holidays and disappeared. A felony arrest warrant has been issued for him. Police have posted information about the girl's disappearance in national and international crime databases. The FBI has also been asked to determine whether the case falls under federal parental kidnapping laws.

As with many of these kinds of cases, the prospects of resolution are unclear. Mali reportedly hasn't signed international treaties for protecting against international parental abduction. The U.S. State Department has asked the country to try to find the girl to make sure she's OK.

Source: The Morehead News, "Missing child thought to be in Africa," Keith Kappes, Jan. 17, 2012