Kids Are About To Be Homeless, Can We Get Full Custody?

Location: Ohio

Long story short, my wife and I have been married a few years. Her kids live with their dad. The kids’ dad assaulted his ex-girlfriend that he lives with and brought his new girlfriend over to show off how young she was. The ex-girlfriend he lives with filed a police report and is kicking them out, they have less than a month and they’re moving in with the (next) new girlfriend.

I’ve been wanting to get full custody the whole time because nobody is over there helping them grow as people or even feeding them. They DoorDash food for themselves and lock theirselves in their room to play games. The kids are always dirty and hungry and their clothes smell like pee. Ohio is a pain in the ass from what I understand because as long as the kids are fed and have a roof over their heads taking custody away is nigh impossible. But I’m tired of them living like this and I’m trying not to take one of our rigs through their front door and taking them. The downside is the youngest thinks her dad is the second coming of Jesus and can do no wrong, so she doesn’t see any problems and doesn’t know they’re about to be homeless or reliant on another woman (again).

We have 2 kids of our own. We’ve always made time to get her 3 kids ourselves and doing the 200 mile round trip every Tuesday/Wednesday and every other weekend. Their dad is a deadbeat that got dishonorably discharged from the national guard reserves for grand larceny and has been bouncing between women to keep a house over their head. He can’t hold a job down and even with child support and government assistance can’t support them. He gained custody because he had a “support network” (I.e. his parents) that lived nearby when they were going through the divorce. His father (the kids grandfather) was molesting the youngest and spent some time in prison for it, so in my eyes that support network is null and void now. This all transpired after the divorce was complete.

I work full time at a good paying Union job (driveaway truck driver - Teamsters) that has excellent benefits and I can keep the kids on insurance until they are 25 or 26. My wife works full time at a work from home job so she’s always available for them.

Do we stand a chance fighting for full custody? I really don’t want them living like this bouncing from random women that he forces them to call “mom” every year or two. It’s negatively effecting the kids and their idea of a relationship and they don’t need this in their lives.

We have a consultation with a lawyer next Tuesday but that’s the soonest we could find one for this. I just don’t know what sort of things we should be asking and what the process would be. I’m new at this, this is my first marriage and I wasn’t with my wife during the divorce process so I’m at a loss for what to do.

Thank you for reading my wall of text and I pray we can get this all sorted and have all the kids happy under one roof.