Legal Question in Family Law in California

There is nothing to prevent her from taking the child out of state until you file and serve her with a divorce petition and summons. The summons contains an automatic restraining order that includes a prohibition from removing the child from the state. If she has already left the state and intends to try to keep the child from you, you need to hire an attorney, no two ways about it. Once the child is out of state the legal complications to too big for a non-lawyer to handle unless you want to gamble with the outcome. And if someone cares so little that they want to gamble on that outcome, they should just let the child go.