Home     Links     Contact Us     Bookmark  
 
   Homepage      News      Legal Forum      Dictionary  
Home : Legal Forum : Child Adoption

Can my husband adopted my children, we haven't heard from there father in years?
Find answers to your legal question.





Can my husband adopted my children, we haven't heard from there father in years?

My husband wants to adopted my children, his stepchildren. The only problem is we haven't seen or heard from there real father in years. I have no idea on how to contact hem. I'm afraid its going to cost me a arm and leg to hire a attorney. Is there something else we can do, My husband has been taking care of them for the last 3 years. What can we do, we can take all the help and ideas anyone will give us.... Thank you so much Nikki


    




kewltim44
Rating
No!!


Madilyn's Mommie
You need his consent and signature to sign over legal rights.


coil_72
Rating
ya but you will never get any child support from real father if you do that .. if you care i mean


Doodlestuff
Rating
Your money would be better spent hiring an investigator. It is likely he can find the children's father fairly quickly. If he's willing to sign the paperwork, it will save you a LOT of effort. On the other hand, if he is your ex-husband and never paid child support or had contact, you likely have an easy case for abandonment. Either way, you will need a lawyer to draw up the paperwork and file the appropriate motions.


Boo Boo[Rainbow Love]
Rating
u can call ur local courthouse and they will more than likly be able to give u some clue and if its even possible..theyll know the most factful and truthful answers.


If God exists why does Y/A exist
Get an extra leg and arm and than hire an atorrney


msmanners212
Rating
I believe that you can have the children declared as abandoned by the father. It does take a court filing but I don't think that it is expensive. You will have to show that you have attempted to contact him through any family that you know or any previous addresses and I think that you have to put an add in the legal announcements section of the paper.

Contact a lawyer for a free consultation and then take it from there.


sunlike1104
Rating
A father is someone who provides and cares for the children. Adoption is a legal term, and does give rights. I have a stepson that I helped raise. I didn't adopt him, but on Mother's Day he always remembers me. I love my stepson like one of my own, and nothing can ever change this.


loved1
The last time a friend had this problem she was instructed to do the following:
Obtain a child adoption or family lawyer, there are groups that do this for little cost.
Next, you must run ads seeking the biological father in several papers,news papers. (she advertised in several small towns and two major cities.
After 9 months or maybe 12 in your area, she was able to show cause, which she was told meant, abandonment or no interest and her husband was allowed to adopt the children. The whole process took less than 18 months.


katietawanda
yes all you have to do is have a letter sent, if no response you can go ahead with the adoption, my bff did that and they are very happy now.


Chrystal
Rating
yeah because if ur husband love ur kids then he should adopted them if he really wants to adopted them then he really loves you and ur kids so much


emsmom79
Rating
My husband was able to adopt my 6 year old daughter. It was very easy for us. I contacted our county attorney and I had to fill out some paperwork. Fortunately for me, my daughter's donor didn't want the responsibility for her, so he signed his rights over. But if they haven't been in contact in years, there are some different avenues that I was told about. They do like a 30 day post in the paper and some other things. It only ended up costing us 350 dollars for a home study, that HAS to be done when the step parent is doing the adoption, just as if it was adopting a child through an agency. Call your local county attorney and it may be cheaper than you think.


Everything T
Rating
It may depend on your state, but I'm almost positive that each state allows the step-parent to adopt children from a previous marriage/relationship after a certain period of time has passed without contact/payment from the biological parent. Since I don't have specific information, googling something like, "adoption laws" "step parents" "Missouri" (if you live in Missouri, that was a random state) may point you in the right direction.

At any rate, if their father has not paid child support or done anything he was legally 'supposed' to do, I think he's given up his rights. Having your husband adopt your children would take away his responsibilities and I'd be careful in case your state has some weird fluke law that will take away a restraining order (or anything similar) against your childrens' father (if you indeed have one of those against him). I would imagine there should be some lawyer in your area that would at least give a free consultation. I'm sure places like your welfare office (sorry, don't know what it's called in your state) would know, as well as a children's services place in your area. Those people would probably be great at pointing you in the right direction. Hopefully, you would only have to do a few things in order to reach your childrens' biological father and after a period of time with no response, be allowed togo ahead with the adoption. It would be a real shame if they wanted to charge a shitload for that since it sounds like you and your husband are trying to do the right thing - something seemingly too few people try to do. best of luck!


rae c
Rating
I am no expert but i would say yes. Just make sure to prove two things that A)the father is completly out of the picture and has been for years which would be easy with your new marriage and any bills that your husband has paid for them and that your school family and friends recognize your husband as someone they understand to be the father. I would assume that after a while it probably work like a common law marriage after a while he has become their "common law father" so that would help the process by smother. The second thing you have to prove is that you tried to find him. Collect any pictures you have of him be ready to answer the question well have you tired the yellow pages and google his mother's old phone number any old addresses what was last known address did you look that up. Assuming you have honestly made an attempt to do this, unless you haven't because you don't want to find him which you might have a good reason for, in the end just be ready to have a answer for any and all of the above. And as for hiring a lawyer i would say you are already looking at needing a lawyer for maybe at least a year as this process goes through. By the hour they are expensive but on retainer the fees for a decent lawyer should be quite managable. Depending on your reasons adoption may not have to be the only solution as it will be a long and hard process and again a lawyer will really help this decsions process and help so much in the end that it would be really worth it. good luck


Shug
Rating
I would contact a family court counselor for answersl, You will have to find a way of informing the missing dad, but I think they will let you post an ad in the classifieds of a newspaper in his town. If you do not know his town, then posting in a national paper like USA Today might satisfy this reqyuirement. Gopd luck!





 Enter Your Message or Comment


User Name:  
User Email:   
Post a comment:




Legal Discussion Forum

 Would this be selfish? Why do people adopt from abroad?
A few days ago i saw a question on adoption which got me thinking. What reasons would a person adopt from oversea's, do you think it is maybe its due to the parents being harder to trace for the ...


 We are thinking of adopting. Is there a least expensive way.?
We lost our child a few months back, now for the first time I am really thinking with all that I have been thru we should adopt.

We cant affor $50,000 like most places we have seen. A...


 Adoptee's i wanna know your point of view?
I'm a birthmom and i will never know what it is like to be adopted. Some people on here really believe that first parents should be there parents not adopted ones in fact some have stated on ...


 Am I wrong for being infuriated?
My mother in law has decided to adopt the baby of a heroin addict cousin. The cousin has 3 kids, none living together, she doesn't want them and neither do the grandparents. Yes, I feel bad for ...


 I have an 11 year old son that we adopted at birth. He now wants to take on the religion of his birth family..
I understand his need to feel connected to his birthparents and in order to do that I can understand why he now feels the need to reject the religion he is being brought up in. I had thought of this ...


 Is it possible to put a child up for adoption at a later age?
this is just a hypothetical question but would the biological parents of a child be able to put their child up for adoption for certain reasons when the child is around 7 years old or even older?...


 Foster kids and money? Is this the problem?
Foster parents are paid a monthly amount of money ranging approximately from $300-$1000 per child. Additionally, they receive extra money for clothes and "some special things" when ...


 Adoptees, do you feel heard here?
I see many wonderful responses to adoptees, but I see many more that negate your experiences. Today (like any other day) I saw (yet another) response that said basically, "thanks for explaining ...


 Should I tell my friend what I really think about her plans to take her daughter's baby?
I have a friend that I have been close to since high school. She has a daughter who is 18 and pregnant.

Last night they came to visit and my friend told me that she had talked her ...


 Me and my husband have been raising his son, (my step-son) which I claim as my own since he was 1 1/2 yrs. old?
When we got him he was in foster care and that is how we found out that my husband was the father. Through a court ordered paternity test, not because the biological mother volunteered that ...


 Is parenting by biological parents "Tragic?" ?
http://www.trutv.com/lib
This is in response to the other question that asked "How in the He** could we not see how awful and tragic adoption is" based on ...


 Have you adopted a child?
My wife wants to adopt a child and I'm okay with it for the most part but I am worried about one thing. We already have two kids that we had together and I am worried I will not love the adopted ...


 Has anyone?
Found their birth father aswell as bio mother?

We talk alot about bio mothers but not much about bio fathers.
What kind of relationship do you have?
Did you get more answers ...


 How have your life experiences affected your views on adoption?
Our stories speak louder than our idealogy. Do have examples of this in your lives of why you believe the way you do?...


 Okay, so me && a friend have a bit of a disagrement on our hands about this VERY unlikely event?
We was reading a magazine artical about a baby that had been found in the woods but had sadly passed away because of the situation and illtreatment. So we all got talking about this and other things ...


 Is there any other websites or forums where you can ask questions about the adoption process?
I'm fine with leaving this website to the anti adoption people and people who want to change public policy because basically that's the only people who use it. I think all the people who ...


 If Pro Adoption is the Majority Opinion?
If being pro-adoption is a majority opinion that has been "fact" for "hundreds and hundreds of years" why are there so many people on Y!A who actually have first hand experience ...


 Do you think as well as having a baby you should adopt one?
My friend was talking about this the other day, she was saying that with so many babies who need homes, a good idea would be to have a baby and then adopt a baby. Do you think that's a good ...


 Do you think someone giving up a child for adoption?
when they already have children will effect the children terribly?this person got pregnant while on BCP's
Additional Details
she isnt financially able to care for another child......


 How would you move on with your life?
I am curious how some who have not experienced surrender would move on. Can you give me a detailed description of what moving on means to you and how you would go about it?

I obviously ...




Copyright (c) 2009-2011 Wiki Law 3k Saturday, May 26, 2012 - Trusted legal information for you.
Archive: Forum  |  Forum  |  Forum  |  Links
0.034