In re K.K. CA4/3

FACTS

L.S. (Mother) and Father began dating in 2009 in Arizona. Their son, K.K., Jr., was born in September 2010. When K.K. was about one year old, Mother and Father broke up, and they alternated caring for K.K. on a weekly basis until April 2013, when Father moved to Utah for a seasonal job. After Father returned to Arizona in October 2013, K.K. continued to live exclusively with Mother. In November 2013, Mother and K.K. moved to Texas; Father did not object. The next (and final) time Father saw K.K. in person was in March 2014, when Mother and K.K. visited Arizona. During that visit, Mother got into a physical

1 All statutory references are to the Family Code.

2 altercation with the mother of Father’s other children. Mother thereafter prevented Father from contacting K.K. In late 2014, Father moved to Illinois; he and Mother then resumed their communications about K.K. For the next several years, Mother and Father exchanged text messages and e-mails about K.K. from time to time, and Father occasionally asked to talk with K.K. either by telephone or video. Father also mailed K.K. birthday and Christmas presents, asked to visit K.K. once for a three-day weekend in October 2015…