Many child custody cases are not simply decided after one hearing. It is not unusual for temporary orders to be handed down in situations in which a family’s needs or the children’s need evolve over time. When a case crosses Missouri state lines or even international borders, the process of determining child custody can be complex and time consuming for the parents and the children involved.

Kelly Rutherford, a television actress known for her role on the show “Gossip Girl”, has found herself in the news lately because of her plight to regain custody of her two children. The actress and her ex-husband married in 2006. They divorced in 2010 and have a 5-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son together.

The father took the children overseas, and Rutherford has fought for their return. She visited France to spend time with them but was not granted access to the kids. She states her ex-husband said she refused to hand over the kids’ passports. However, she also says she agreed to give them to a neutral party during the visit, stipulating that she did not want them to go to a person of her ex-husband’s choosing.

A judge has recently granted an order to give her temporary custody. There is an additional court hearing planned. A temporary order may be considered a win for a parent seeking the order, but, as it is temporary, the child custody process may be far from over and require additional hearings in a Missouri family court. International law and visa issues may make the process of deciding in the best interests of the children with respect to the rights of the parents much more complicated than the parents may have originally anticipated.

Source: CNN, “Kelly Rutherford granted sole custody of two children“, Emanuella Grinberg and Dana Ford, May 25, 2015