Brain-damaged girl and her brother caught in grandparents' custody battle
Writing a will is an unusual act for a couple in their mid-30s, but Karl and Marisa Heiss did not do ordinary things.
An American carpenter and an Argentine social worker, they lived for a year in a teepee in a northern Idaho forest. She homeschooled their two children, teaching in Spanish and English to give them a future in both countries. They had no TV or video games but read books constantly, and the kids created art and music when they weren't outside playing.
Bilingual and bicultural, the family didn't quite fit with either country's mainstream culture. Theirs was a "hippie, peace and love" community in the wilderness, as Marisa's mother, Violeta Conti, saw it — a place where family and friends could reinforce their values.
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8 comments:
Thats so sad!
you see so much of this nowadays! when a child marries someone from another country expect there to be issues like this. Tiger is about to find out! hell we even have lesbians going to court to get visitation rights for children that have no connection to whatsoever other than the fact they slept with the childs mother!this is our crazy world. way I see it their must have been a reason they listed her parents ahead of his! so the judge ruled correctly. kinda makes me wonder about his relationship with his parents!
So, the question remains for all readers: who will take care of your kids if you and your spouse die?
Wills are easy and cheap to create. No one with children should be without one.
The will didn't say care for the children only if healthy.
As hard as I'm sure it was on the American parents, their assumption that only the U.S. can provide a healthy and nurturing environment is tunnel-visioned. Their own son raised these children in a very atypical U.S. environment, so why would they think an actual non-U.S. environment would be so terrible?
Very sad. Karl's parents were scared and didn't want to be separated from the grandchildren. But the will was clear. They should have stuck to it, especially with the support the Argentinian family could give within their own family.
The Argentine family should not block contact, if indeed, that is happening.
If the kids are US citizens they should stay in the US.
The children should be allowed to visit the United States annually. They need to stay with and in an environment that they are most accustomed to which is most likely the maternal grandmother but have the opportunity to experience how their extended family lives.
A will such as the one that the two parents had written up would not be upheld in most state's courts. Of course one of the few that it would and did is Idaho.
I think the wishes of the parents should be followed.
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