Originally Posted by Zekk_T_Strife
...Kid? Now here is where I see your biggest hesitation but you included a solution in your previous posts. If you're going to be going into the Navy you don't NEED and, in fact, SHOULDN'T be fighting for full custody. Figure out exactly what you need and go for it. Worry about the route AFTER setting the destination.
I see what you are saying - and I would do it too. But here enlies the problem. I originally would have given him up easily to his mother. This is sad, but true. I honestly was not, and still aren't ready to handle a kid. Especially on my own. But I faught for him because even tho I will be a crappy father and can't give him everything he wants, I can at least try my hardest for him, and keep him out of bad situations that his mother would not hesitate to put him in. When making this decision about going into the service, I am not only thinking of my own well being and future, I am thinking of my son's over mine. He comes before me any day. I dont know if anyone can understand that, but it is how I feel. I can't give up the custody battle and let his mother take over. She lives a corrupted life full of drugs, and all around bad situations. She is a stripper/prostitute. She lives at night, and sleeps at day. She is hardly ever sober. She hangs around the wrong kind of people, and that will place my son in the wrong kind of environment. He will grow up corrupted. He might not even get a chance to grow up at all. With me, at least he will have a safe environment, that is drug and violence free. He is a good kid, and he doesn't deserve to go thru what his mother would put him thru. There is no way in hell I will allow his mother to get custody of him. And if it means sacrificing my own gains, then so be it. I will not jeperdise the livelyhood of my son.