After being separated for more than seven months, Nancy Karatzas and her son, Vasileios, are reunited in a park in Greece in April. Vasilei turned 3 in February, halfway around the world from his mom.

Submitted photo

Nancy Wilhelm Karatzas wanted her little boy to grow up bilingual, with an understanding of his Greek heritage. But she didn't want him to become fluent in his father's culture this way: By being taken to Greece to live permanently, without her knowledge or her consent.

"I just want my son back," said Karatzas, who grew up in Sheridan and now lives in Polk County.

International law says Karatzas and her 3-year-old son should be reunited in the United States. After a lengthy ordeal involving lawyers in both countries and a trial in Greek court, she was granted custody and her husband was told to bring Vasileios home.

But there's not really any agency that enforces that judgment. As day by day Vasileios becomes more attached to Greece and his paternal relatives, his mother is left waiting for her husband to comply with the law.

"The unknown is the hardest," she said. "Not knowing when I'll see Vasilei again..."

Karatzas never dreamed she would be involved in an international custody battle someday. When a mutual friend introduced her to the Greek man who would become her husband, all she foresaw was a happy future.

They married in the U.S. in 2005. He was a legal alien, his status assured by his marriage to an American.

Their son was born in 2006. They named him after his paternal grandfather.

"We wanted to do some cultural things in honor of his being Greek," Karatzas said. "We were teaching him both English and Greek."

She described her son as a happy, easy-going little boy. He loves to be held, to play ball or to spend time with his two older sisters, who are from Karatzas' previous marriage. "Vasileios is a really good boy," she said.

When he was 3 months old, they took him to Greece to be baptized. Parents and child traveled to Greece again when the boy's namesake died.

Then, on Sept. 10, 2008, Karatzas' husband and son left on a 20-day trip to visit Vasileios' grandmother and other relatives in Greece. Because of her work as a nurse, Karatzas couldn't go herself. She was happy about her son making the trip, though.

"But I would have never put him on that plane if I knew he wasn't coming back," she said.

Two days before they were due to fly home, her husband phoned, saying Vasileios had an earache and couldn't fly, so he was postponing their return until Oct. 18. Then, in mid-October, he called again, saying they would be staying in Greece for good.

"I said, just bring my son back. And he said no," she recalled.

Suddenly "so scared my throat dried up and I couldn't think," Karatzas turned to the Internet, desperately looking for information.

She called the State Department's Office of Children's Issues, which transferred her to Homeland Security, and later she called on Oregon's congressional delegation.

People were sympathetic, she said, but their assistance was limited mostly to referring her to other places she could call for information. They also suggested she file a missing child report with local police.

Karatzas used the Internet to look for a lawyer specializing in international child custody cases. She found two in Oregon.

When she called the first one, she faced a staggering truth: Her husband had consulted with the same attorney before he left the U.S.

Previously, she said, she thought her husband had made his decision after reaching his homeland. "But this made me think it was all preplanned," she said.

Her suspicions were soon confirmed: She discovered that before he left with Vasileios, he had quit his job; sold his car; emptied his bank account, which he didn't share with her; and taken important documents, such as their child's birth certificate and their marriage certificate.

Because the first lawyer had worked with her husband, Karatzas sought out the other Oregon lawyer with international custody experience.

That attorney helped her work through a Hague Convention application, the international paperwork required of parents hoping to bring back their children from overseas. She had to collect all pertinent documents - including new copies of her son's birth certificate - and get statements from character witnesses, including her doctors and her ex-husband, who is the father of her teenage daughters.

By December, three months after she waved good-bye to her 2-year-old, all her documents had been completed and sent to Greek authorities. Karatzas made plans to travel to Greece for the court proceedings, which were scheduled in April.

It would be the first time in more than seven months that she had seen Vasileios. In the interim, he had celebrated his third birthday.

Thankfully, she said, there was no question that he remembered her. When his dad tried to take him from Karatzas' arms, she said, the little boy pushed his father away. Still, they had a little trouble communicating, since Vasileios had forgotten most of his English.

Karatzas was overjoyed to see him. "We had fun," she said.

Karatzas went to court in Greece with a Greek lawyer, taking her sister as a character witness. It was very different from an American courtroom, she said. The lawyers and judge questioned the witnesses, and she was not allowed to defend herself against the disparaging things said by her husband and mother-in-law.

"They said I wasn't a good mother. I think they would have said anything they needed to say to keep me from getting him," she said.

Their efforts failed, though. The court considered the evidence and found in her favor. Her husband has 30 days to file an appeal of the June 1 ruling; if he does so, that could stretch out the process another five or six months, she said.

She hopes he will comply with the court order and bring Vasileios home. But thus far, he hasn't given her a date.

"He's concerned about the missing child report I filed, afraid he'll be in trouble. I told him he needs to get a lawyer and just deal with it," she said.

If her husband won't bring their son back to Oregon, Karatzas said she would be happy to go get him. However, her husband would have to sign legal documents allowing this; otherwise, there's a potential she could be held by Greek authorities if she tried taking her son out of the country.

Traveling to Greece again also would add to her financial strain. With the flights, legal fees and other expenses, she's spent an "amazing amount" approaching six figures, she said.

"But you can't not fight for your child," she said.

She has been picking up extra shifts to earn money for her legal expenses. She said she is hoping to put together some sort of fundraiser for her own sake and in order to help other families going through similar problems.

She would like to start a nonprofit organization to help parents through the maze of paperwork and suggest lawyers with experience in international custody battles.

"It's amazing how many people are out there, dealing with this," she said.

She can be reached at an e-mail address, bringvasileioshome@gmail.com. An account has been set up at U.S. Bank in her son's name, Vasileios Karatzas.