My ex-husband is taking our children (2M and 4M) to his home country for a family wedding for 4 weeks. He has already taken them on a two week vacation (all he is allowed for the year) this summer. I told him I would be ok with him taking them for the wedding since it was an important event but I was not ok with 4 weeks away from my small children. He bought the tickets anyway. I do not *want* to have to involve police or the courts, but he has a history of doing whatever he wants and at some point I need to put my foot down and I need to know what I can do.

I have thought to write an email/letter and sending him in writing for the paper trail that I am not ok with him taking them for 4 weeks and that he will promise to not say that I am 'okay' with being away from my children for so long, and will not try to use those 4 weeks of sole custody to try and amend the custody or child support.

I realize I should hold their passports, etc, but my ex-husband has a history of being physically and emotionally/verbally abusive and again, he does whatever he wants. It may also be worth knowing that our custody agreement states that we have 50/50, however there has only been one month in the past year that he has actually had them 50%, several months he has had them less than 10 days.