S.A.M. v. M.H.W.

S.A.M. ("the mother") and M.H.W. ("the father") are the unmarried parents of S.M. ("the child"), who was born on December 2, 2012. In October 2015, the father filed in the Talladega Juvenile Court a petition seeking to establish paternity and seeking custody of the child. The record reveals the following facts.

The mother and the father met in December 2009. They dated for a few months, and the father, who is a pharmacist, moved to Alaska. The parents kept in touch, and, in March 2012, the mother went to Alaska to visit the father. She became pregnant during her two-week visit, but the parents…