In re D.W.
These are consolidated appeals from the juvenile court judgment of dependency and a postjudgment order entered on December 13, 2007, and January 31, 2008, respectively. D.W., the father of J.A.W. and D.W. Jr., initiated proceedings in Orange County to dissolve his marriage to J.W., the childrens mother, and sought sole legal and physical custody of the children. In August 2006, the father arranged to have the children sent to him from Germany, where they were living with their mother. The family court granted the mothers petition under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Hague Convention)[1]to have the children returned to Germany for further custody proceedings, and ordered the father to turn the children over to the mother. The father instead turned them over to the Orange County Social Services Agency (SSA), who took them into protective custody and filed a dependency petition on their behalf. After proceedings lasting more than a year, the juvenile court adjudicated them dependents of the court, removed them from parental custody, and restricted the mothers visitation until she completed a residential substance abuse program. Subsequently, the juvenile court issued a restraining order preventing the mother from having contact with the father or the childrens foster parents.
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