smh...at least when your children finally decide to come see you on their own in the US...you can honestly say you did everything you could to try and have them back...
That's always been my guiding mantra.
I learned one thing from you (or was it the other way around). My case fell apart because the "facts" entered and accepted at the first level were so biased, it was impossible to appeal to a higher court where the rules say that you can't argue the facts, only the interpretation of the law as the relate to the facts. When you filed your petition, I remember you said that you submitted a TON of proof upfront. As you learned through my and other's experiences, once the case starts, your ability to enter or correct evidence is greatly diminished.
For example, the courts ruled that as I had threatened my wife with criminal proceedings and even started an action against her in the United States, they would not return my children because she would not have access to them from prison. What was the evidence they had? I sent her one email that stated, "IF I were to press criminal charges. . ." I then went on in the email to state that I had no intentions as that would be harmful to the children. I tried to explain this to the judge that I had no intention of ever filing charges, but since he did not speak English, he accepted the TP's attorney's out-of-context translation. Anybody who reads this forum knows that I strongly advocate against filing criminal charges, but the official records state that I, "in fact", pressed charges. It's obvious that the Brazilian courts had no interest in verifying the truthfulness of any of this information. A simple phone call or email would have confirmed that there were no charges pending. In truth, I never even spoke to the district attorney.
The following article I wrote two years ago discusses this fact.
http://bringseanhome.org/?page_id=72