Katherine Mitcham appeals from the trial court’s order granting Christopher Spry’s petition for change of custody. We affirm. “When reviewing a child custody decision, this court views the evidence presented in the light most favorable to upholding the trial court’s order.”1 As we consider Mitcham’s claims, we are mindful that the Solomonic task of assigning the custody of children lies squarely upon the shoulders of the judge who can see and hear the parties and their witnesses, observe their demeanor and attitudes, and assess their credibility. If the record contains any reasonable evidence to support the trial court’s decision on a petition to modify custody, it will be affirmed on appeal.2 So viewed, the record reflects that Mitcham and Spry were formerly married and have one minor child, born in 2001. Both parties are members of the military; Mitcham is in the Navy, and Spry is in the Marines. When the parties divorced in 2006, their settlement agreement was incorporated into the divorce decree. The settlement agreement provided for joint legal and physical custody, with each parent having the child for six months and the custodial parent having final decision-making authority. Under the terms of the agreement, the non-custodial parent was required to pay child support. At the time of their divorce, Mitcham was stationed in Fort Gordon, Georgia, and Spry was stationed in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Because Mitcham and Spry were on active military duty and scheduled for deployment and/or military schooling at the time of their divorce, they agreed that the child would reside with Spry’s parents in Missouri during those times. According to Spry and the grandparents, from 2005 to 2007, the child spent 18 of 24 months in Missouri while his parents were either deployed or in school. The child spent the summer of 2007 with Mitcham in Georgia and the 2007-2008 school year with Spry in North Carolina. In the summer of 2008, the child returned to Georgia and spent the 2008-2009 school year with Mitcham and her new husband, who is on active duty in the Army.
When Spry learned that Mitcham had separated from the Navy and planned to relocate to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where her husband was stationed, he filed the instant petition, asking that he be awarded primary physical custody of the child with Mitcham being awarded liberal and reasonable visitation. At the time of the hearing, Spry had separated from the Marines and was living with his parents in Columbia, Missouri, where he grew up and planned to remain. He testified that he “will at a future date move out of his parents’ house” and that he hopes to attend school at the University of Missouri under the GI bill. Following the hearing, the trial court noted that there had been a material change in circumstances, i.e., the parties’ change in careers and respective relocations coupled with the child reaching school-age, and awarded primary physical custody to Spry, ruling that both parents are fit parents, but that factors F, G, and H of Code section 19-9-3 a, which pertain to the home environment, continuity for the child, and stability of the family unit, weighed slightly in favor of Spry. Specifically, the Court found that Spry had relocated to Missouri where his parents and other family members reside and that the child had formed a close bond with his grandparents because he had spent considerable time with them while Spry and Mitcham were deployed. With regard to Mitcham, the Court noted that she has no other family in North Carolina, where she plans to relocate. The court granted the parties joint legal custody of the child but awarded physical custody of the child to Spry.
