I know this wouldn't bother your ex-wife but the church really takes it seriously if someone threatens to sue them and make a media spectacle of them. I think you have the upper hand but if they try to go ahead with either a sealing or baptism of your kids I would most certainly go to the media, a lawyer, and cause a really big fuss.

Also, ask them this question. "If I were to come back to the church in full fellowship how would it be right to have my children sealed to someone else, especially if he might actually fall away later? I don't think it is right to treat my kids like a volleyball. There would be no reason at all to return to Mormonism if the church can throw my kids away like trash."

I was sealed as a nine-year-old to my step father and mother. The ceremony was really brief - we waited with a family friend while they went through then were brought into what I assume is the sealing room, we all knelt around the alter, Mum and Dad held hands, and that was it. Then of course looking in the eternal mirrors.

But we did need to be legally adopted by our new Dad. And our birthfather refused (according to him and our paternal grandmother). Our mother FORGED his signature on adoption papers and just went ahead. I didn't find out I was adopted until I went to get a passport over a decade later. My father (who I was living with at that stage), my grandmother, and my also adopted sister and I were devastated.

My mother maintained that our father must have been "so drunk" he couldn't remember signing the papers. Which is just nonsense, but she used to run him down for drinking frequently. But in spite of the adoption, she was happy to accept his money till we were 18 (they had a private agreement), and we spent all holidays with him in accordance with the original custody agreement.

Be very careful! I cannot see how they can do the sealing without having your kids adopted to their step father.