Is it possible for my husband to adopt my child?

Linny G

It may indeed be considered abandonment, but there are definite legal steps you need to go through for your husband to adopt her.
My experience is that if the adoption is not done ethically (legally) it could come back to haunt you.
Consult a family law attorney. He will make sure her father signs his rights over. If the bio father does not wish to do this, and is not contacted (and a one liner in a classified section of the newspaper is not a good idea & is being challenged by n dads in court all the time) you will have to take him to court to have his rights terminated.
If there is documented child abuse, and he was charged for the crimes, you may have a case.
Its just important to do this LEGALLY, or things could get very expensive and ugly years down the road.

lorigiggles82

if you don't know where the father is--if you tell them you don't know where he is, they will put an add in the paper of the area of his last known address. They have to run the add 3 different times. If he does not respond, then a judge can sign for the absent father. Are you getting what i am saying?!

been there, done that.

Beth K

Check with an attorney. Usually they will give you a free consultation to answer questions such as the one you have. However, to help you along, the father would be served papers stating that the child will be adopted by your husband. If he has not been in the child's life I am assuming that he is not paying child support thus he has (essentially) given up his parental rights. So, what may happen is that he gets served (assuming he can be found) and decides that he wants to be in her life. Then you say, fine, you owe back child support of $$$. That usually turns people off of trying to re-enter and would allow you to continue with the adoption process. However, if he bucks up and says okay. You will need to honor that within certain reason. He has a history of abuse so all visits will need to be supervised, CPS should be involved for the protection of the child and you as her legal guardian.

Honestly, I don't think he'll want to raise a stink about your soon-to-be hubby adopting the child, from my experience, but everyone is different and has different motives.

Congratulations and good luck,

Labgurl

The first thing to consider is that even though her biological father may have been on the birth certificate, that does not give him parental rights.

Apparently this is a common misconception that I too used to have about my sons father. We were not married.

You have not stated whether or not the both of you were married at the time of her birth. If you were, he does have some rights, if not and he is just on the birth certificate, he has no rights until he takes a paternity test. I have been involved in custody problems of my own, and that is the way they see in in a court of law. You need to find out if they stripped him of his rights after the abuse too. Sometimes judges will do that in abuse cases.

I believe that you have to show intent to contact the "legal" father before you try to give your Fiance' that legal title. I know that you have to print it in the paper in the announcement section of your intent to relinquish parental rights and to give them to your Fiance' now. You have to show the court that you have made some type of public effort to contact him. If he even has rights at all that is.

You also will need (possibly) witness' and some sort of prof that he has not been in her life, not given any child support and not seen her or had any contact for over a year. All you need is a year of no intent on his part. It is important for you to know that anything such as a card in the mail is a form of contact. Sounds silly, but that is how the law works.
You will start the effort of contact NOW and you will file and get a lawyer for the action and motion to adopt AFTER you GET married next year. This is the time you discuss how you have a case for abandonment and that he has not seen her...yadda yadda. You may also want to pull up his criminal record of the abuse that he inflicted on her when he was around. This will let the judge know that even if you do find him, he is not worth being aloud to plead on his behalf. THAT WOULD BE A GOOD THING.
You will show how your Fiance' is the father figure in her life now, provider, etc... and try to plead your case to the judge as to why he should be allowed to be the legal father of the child. Remember, they are all about "the best interest of the child", not what we feel is the best interest. It sounds like you have a case though.
So you need to get a lawyer soon and try to schedule the hearing for AFTER you get married. The court system can sometimes be a long and drawn out process.

You will need a lawyer, a hearing before the judge to plead your request and you will also file with the court house to make it legal. All of these things will take money. So get ready to spend some to give this Lawyer a retainer fee. After that, wait on your new birth certificate with his name in place as the father for your little girl.

gibberish

I do hope so.

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