Is it legal in sc to have a baby live with you that is not related?

My husband and i will be adopting and bringing home a child right from the hospital when he/she is born. The birth mother wants the adoption, but i'm not sure about the birth father. i have his home and cell # and i've called and left him a few messages telling him i wanted to adopt the child and wanted to talk to him about it, but i have not heard ANYTHING back from him. How do i go about doing the adoption if he won't get in contact with me? Does him not responding help or hurt my chances of adopting the baby? I'm not even sure if he really IS the dad. and the mother hasn't heard or seen anything from him in going on 3 months now. i just wanted to see what you all thought b/c i don't want to get in trouble with the law for bringing home the baby befour the adoption is even started. Thanks for your help in advance.

Randy B

This is something you should certainly NOT be doing on your own without the assistance of a lawyer qualified in the area of adoption law. You are only setting yourselves up for problems and heartache. The father does not have to respond to you, he may be choosing to let his lawyer do the talking for him. And before any adoption can be done you need to have his consent. You may find yourselves going home from the hospital only to have a knock on the door from someone looking to take THEIR baby back. And they would have both the moral and the legal authority to do so since you would be in no position to question paternity. I'd strongly advise that before you go ANY further with this you speak with a lawyer and that you insist the mother do the same.

Robin

If you want to know about putative (presumed) father's rights in your state, check the following website. You can choose the specific topics you wish to find information on.

http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/state/

http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/state/index.cfm?event=stateStatutes.processSearch

In the meatime, please keep a copy of the child's original birth certificate. Once adopted, an amended birth certificate is issued and the OBC is sealed. One day, your child will greatly appreciate this gift.

Also, please keep all information you have about his or her birth family. He/she may want to meet them one day. And don't worry. It doesn't mean they love you any less. Just as parents can love more that one child, so can one child love more than one parent.

Good luck!

PS: Good advice from Randy.

Sylvia H

That screams kidnapping from the father's viewpoint. He could come to your home with an officer a month after you have the baby at your house and take the child and im guessing some sort of legal charges could be brought on you.

A paternity test needs to be done and if he is the father and wants nothing to do with it he should sign all parental rights over. This sounds very risky and you might fall in love with this baby and then get it taken away.

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